MTN Nigeria plans to sustain its investment in network infrastructure as it positions connected homes as a major growth opportunity over the next five to 10 years, signalling a shift towards expanding beyond traditional mobile services to meet rising demand for high-capacity internet connectivity.
Ralph Mupita, group president and chief executive officer of MTN Group, at a meeting with MTN Media Innovation Fellows, in Lagos, on Wednesday, said rising smartphone and other device costs would not derail the company’s investment plans in Nigeria, citing the country’s growth potential and increasing demand for data services.
Mupita, who also holds a leadership position within the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), said expanding fibre infrastructure would be critical to supporting the next phase of connectivity, particularly as households and businesses consume more data.
The comments come as telecom operators face the twin pressures of rising equipment costs and growing demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity. For MTN, the opportunity increasingly lies in strengthening the infrastructure needed to support data-intensive services and connect homes to faster internet.
Mupita said customer data consumption was increasing by about 30 percent annually across MTN Nigeria’s customer base, reinforcing the need for continuous investment in network capacity.
He explained that mobile networks alone would face limitations in supporting some high-volume connectivity needs, making fibre infrastructure an important part of the company’s longer-term strategy.
Connected homes could provide operators with an additional source of growth by extending connectivity beyond individual mobile subscriptions to household internet services and other data-intensive applications.
However, the pace of adoption will depend partly on the affordability of devices and internet services, as well as the availability of reliable infrastructure. Rising smartphone prices could make it harder for lower-income consumers to access digital services, even as network coverage improves.
Mupita said global demand for memory chips, driven partly by artificial intelligence and data-centre expansion, was putting pressure on device costs. He indicated that the price of entry-level data-capable phones could rise beyond earlier expectations, potentially complicating efforts to expand digital access across African markets.
For Nigeria, the challenge is to expand network capacity while keeping connectivity affordable enough for more households to come online. Higher device costs could limit the number of consumers able to take advantage of improved networks, creating a gap between infrastructure investment and actual usage.
MTN’s investment outlook also reflects the growing importance of fibre in supporting businesses, homes and emerging digital services. Fibre networks can provide higher capacity and more reliable backhaul for mobile infrastructure, while helping meet demand from users who require consistent, high-volume connectivity.
Mupita also discussed MTN’s ambition to develop a large data centre in Nigeria, linking the project to the country’s growing interest in digital sovereignty and local data hosting.
Under the approach he described, sensitive workloads, including some banking, healthcare and national-security data, could be hosted locally, while less sensitive workloads could continue to use public cloud services. The proposed data-centre project and its scope were not detailed in the remarks and should be confirmed with MTN before publication.
The emphasis on local infrastructure comes as governments and businesses increasingly consider where their data is stored, how it is protected and whether domestic infrastructure can support critical digital services.
For MTN, the next phase of growth will therefore depend not only on expanding mobile connectivity but also on investing in fibre, data infrastructure and services that meet the changing needs of households and businesses.
Mupita maintained that higher device costs would not change the company’s commitment to Nigeria, pointing to connected homes and fibre as areas with significant long-term potential.
The strategy nevertheless faces affordability and infrastructure challenges. Expanding network capacity will not automatically translate into broader digital inclusion if consumers cannot afford compatible devices or recurring data and internet subscriptions.