MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita has called for immediate, large-scale investments in artificial intelligence (AI), digital infrastructure, and human capital development to ensure that Africa does not fall behind in the global technological transformation. Speaking at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation (KMF) Inclusive Growth Forum, Mupita emphasized that AI represents one of the greatest opportunities for inclusive economic growth on the continent—but warned that without urgent action, Africa risks deepening inequality and creating a digital underclass.
“We must be obsessed and paranoid about not being left behind,” Mupita told the gathering, urging policymakers, businesses, and investors to align on a shared strategy for building Africa’s AI-driven future.
According to Mupita, Africa’s path to inclusive AI development requires bold, coordinated efforts across six key areas — starting with energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that achieving Africa’s energy and climate goals by 2030 will require over $200 billion in annual investment, underscoring the link between power access and digital progress. With AI and data centers consuming vast amounts of electricity, reliable energy access is crucial to supporting the continent’s digital ambitions.
Currently, Africa accounts for less than 2% of global data centre capacity, a gap that highlights the urgency for deeper investment in digital infrastructure. Beyond fibre networks and subsea cables, Mupita stressed the need to expand data processing and storage facilities that can power emerging technologies. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that the continent needs roughly $96 billion by 2030 to close its infrastructure investment gap.
Mupita also urged African nations to develop their own large language models (LLMs) to ensure AI systems reflect local contexts, languages, and cultures. Of the over 2,000 distinct African languages, fewer than 2% are currently represented in mainstream AI systems. He referenced ongoing initiatives such as the Nigerian Atlas for Languages & AI at Scale (N-ATLAS) — an open-source multilingual LLM launched to capture Nigeria’s linguistic diversity and power AI solutions tailored to African realities. MTN, he added, is actively supporting the collection of African language datasets and funding academic research to advance these efforts.
In addition to infrastructure, Mupita emphasized the need to accelerate digital skills development across the continent. With Africa’s youth expected to form the world’s largest workforce by 2050, he argued that the continent’s demographic advantage could become its strongest asset if properly trained for the digital economy. By 2030, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have over 230 million digital jobs, making skills training essential to ensuring that automation creates more jobs than it replaces.
“This is an opportunity to enable Africa’s rich pipeline of youth,” he said. “We must ensure that new and augmented jobs outnumber the jobs lost, particularly given the youth divide that Africa faces.”
Mupita also outlined the importance of leveraging AI to solve Africa’s most pressing challenges in healthcare, education, and agriculture, noting that the combination of traditional and generative AI could deliver transformative benefits in these sectors.
Finally, he called for stronger public-private partnerships to provide scale and governance for Africa’s AI ambitions. “To give African AI initiatives scale and joint success, governments, the private sector and civil society must partner on policy, data governance and skills development,” Mupita said. “And we must do this without delay.”
As global AI adoption accelerates, MTN’s message is clear: Africa must move from being a consumer of technology to a creator of solutions. By investing in power, infrastructure, and human capital today, the continent can secure its place in the emerging AI-driven economy — shaping an inclusive digital future that works for all Africans.
