“Technology is our superpower”—Africa and India take seat at top table as AI revolution spreads |
“Technology is our superpower”—Africa and India take seat at top table as AI revolution spreads
In the year 2000, the population of Nigeria was 125 million people. The number of fixed telephone lines was officially 700,000 but, of those, it is likely just 500,000 actually worked. The country was a communication desert, with a tele-density (a key metric of economic development) languishing at 0.4 lines per 100 habitants. In America it was 68.4.
A quarter of a century later and Nigeria, the sixth-most populous country in the world, is a lesson in the ‘straight to mobile’ journey of many emerging economies. In 2025, the number of mobile connections hovered around 200m for a population of 237m people.
“There has been a massive wireless revolution,” Ralph Mupita, chief executive of MTN, Africa’s largest mobile provider, told me at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Banking and other financial services have followed as people have transferred to mobile payment systems. “We are using technology to leapfrog and to move ahead. When you think about Africa—by 2040 the median age will be 19. Technology will be what gets Africa to its full potential.”
Analysts wonder ‘what next’ when it comes to mapping out the future. The answer is often all around them. MTN is expanding into digital service provision (gaming and music), infrastructure (fiber and datacenters) and mobile money products—often with partners such as Microsoft, Mastercard and the African Development........