Nigeria’s largest telecom company MTN Nigeria has announced plans to invest N600 billion ($1.46 billion) in expanding its network infrastructure across Nigeria over the next three years.
MTN Nigeria is a subsidiary of the South African multinational telecom giant MTN Group, which recorded more than 280 million international subscribers as of December 2020. This made it the eighth largest mobile network operator globally.
Ernest Ndukwe is the chairman of MTN Nigeria Communications. He was the former chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission.
His appointment to the company’s board came in 2019 after Pascal Dozie, the founder of the defunct Diamond Bank, who served on the company’s board since its inception in Nigeria, left the post.
Nairametrics recently cited Ndukwe as saying the company is committed to expanding its rural connectivity to reach underserved areas across the country.
“We plan to connect approximately 1000 rural communities to our network this year with an additional 2000 communities in 2022,” Ndukwe said at the company’s twentieth-anniversary celebration in Lagos.
In a further comment, MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola expressed optimism in the country’s telecom sector, underscoring his willingness to collaborate with stakeholders to push forward Nigeria’s digital economy.
“We firmly believe that Nigeria’s digital journey is only just beginning and that the future is filled with promises,” Toriola said. “Working together, we can and will build the more prosperous and inclusive future we seek and empower even more Nigerians to do greater things.”
He added that the company will be selling down 14 percent of its shares to more than 1 million Nigerian retail investors.
MTN Group launched in Nigeria in 2001. With an operational footprint in Africa and Asia (more than 20 countries), Nigeria remains its most significant market, generating one-third of its annual revenue.
The company has a 35-percent share of Nigeria’s telecom market.