MTN Group is transforming its enterprise business, moving beyond traditional mobile and voice services towards digital infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, AI, data centres and managed networks.
Mazen Mroué, CEO of MTN Group’s digital infrastructure, said connectivity will remain the foundation of MTN Business, but future growth will increasingly come from higher-value ICT services that help businesses digitise and modernise their operations.
MTN estimates that the enterprise market could grow from approximately R391 billion in 2025 to R639 billion by 2030, creating significant opportunities for the group.
A key part of the strategy is the development of two new data centres in South Africa and Nigeria. The facilities will be designed as carrier-neutral, AI-ready platforms, allowing MTN to provide infrastructure capacity to businesses and other technology providers.
The data centres will be supported by resilient power infrastructure and connected to MTN’s extensive terrestrial and subsea fibre networks, positioning them to support growing cloud, enterprise and AI workloads.
MTN is also using AI to improve its own network operations. The group has deployed agentic AI to monitor its fibre network, using micro-vibrations to detect patterns that could indicate physical damage or disruptions.
The technology can alert technicians to potential fibre cuts before or as they occur, helping reduce the time required to diagnose and repair network faults, which previously could take around eight hours.
MTN also plans to significantly expand its African fibre footprint, targeting 420,000km to 560,000km of fibre by 2030 as it seeks to connect 100 million additional data customers.
The strategy marks a broader shift for MTN—from being primarily a connectivity provider to becoming a digital infrastructure and AI enabler for Africa’s growing digital economy.
Source : mybroadband.co.za
