Building Local Content Together: 25 Years of Shared Growth
Good morning, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
Chairman and members of the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce, distinguished business leaders, fellow speakers and panellists, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a real privilege to be here this morning.
The theme before us – Building Local Content Together: 25 Years of Shared Growth – is both timely and personal for MTN Nigeria.
It is timely because Nigeria is at a point where local content can no longer be treated as a slogan. It must become a serious economic strategy.
And it is personal because MTN’s own Nigerian journey over the last 25 years is, in many ways, a story of how investment became infrastructure, how infrastructure enabled enterprise, and how enterprise deepened local capability.
The proposition I want to leave with you this morning is simple:
MTN’s greatest contribution to Nigeria is not only the network we built. It is what Nigerians have been able to build because the network exists.
That is what makes us a catalyst.
A catalyst does not become the entire reaction.
It makes the reaction possible.
The Journey: 25 years. One shared story.
This slide captures the arc of the journey.
In 2001, Nigeria opened up the telecoms market.
Investment followed.
But investment alone did not build the industry.
Nigerian engineers, contractors, distributors, professional firms, agencies, entrepreneurs and regulators turned that investment into an ecosystem.
That is an important distinction.
Capital may start a journey, but people build institutions.
In 2001, the opportunity was liberalisation and commercial launch.
By 2006, the story had become scale rapid network expansion, national coverage ambitions, and the growth of a supplier and distribution ecosystem.
In 2019, the listing on the Nigerian Exchange marked another turning point. It deepened local participation and made MTN not merely a company operating in Nigeria, but a company Nigerians could own directly.
And now, in 2026, as we mark 25 years, the story is no longer only about telecoms.
It is about infrastructure. It is about enterprise. It is about skills. It is about ownership. It is about shared growth.
So, the story of 25 years is not simply how MTN grew in Nigeria.
It is how Nigerian enterprise, Nigerian capability and Nigerian ownership grew alongside it.
The Proposition: What makes investment truly local?
This is the central idea of the presentation.
Local content is not simply where we buy. It is what we build.
Local procurement tells us where money was spent. But local content should tell us what that spending left behind.
After a contract has been delivered, what remains in the economy?
Did a Nigerian business become stronger? Did people acquire new skills? Did governance improve? Did delivery standards rise? Did the supplier invest in systems, equipment, talent or technology? Did that business become more capable of winning work beyond MTN?
If the answer is yes, then procurement has become local content.
If the answer is no, then we may have spent money locally, but we have not necessarily built capability.
So I see local content as a conversion mechanism.
It converts spend into capability. Capability into enterprise. Enterprise into jobs and wealth. And eventually, jobs and wealth into broader Nigerian ownership of what has been built.
That is why the real measure is not the invoice.
The real measure is the capability that remains in the economy after the invoice has been paid.
The Platform: Our network is our factory. The ecosystem is the multiplier.
For MTN, the network is our factory. But the ecosystem is the multiplier.
The numbers on this slide speak to scale: 92.2 million subscriber connections as at 30 June 2026; 55.7 million active data users; over 43,000 kilometres of fibre deployed; and approximately 2 million Nigerian touchpoints across direct and indirect trade partners, agents and distribution points.
But I want us to look beyond the numbers.
A connection is not just a line on a network.
A connection can be a shop. A payment point. A classroom. A newsroom. A clinic. A logistics business. A content creator. A small enterprise that suddenly has access to customers beyond its street.
This is why telecommunications is economic infrastructure.
When you build connectivity, you are not merely creating voice and data traffic.
You are creating the rails on which other people move ideas, money, services, content and enterprise.
The real impact of MTN is therefore not only what happens inside MTN.
It is what happens around MTN because the platform exists.
That is the multiplier.
From Spend to Capability: How expenditure becomes capacity.
This slide moves from infrastructure to local enterprise.
In 2025, MTN spent over 2.7 trillion with Nigerian suppliers.
The share of procurement spend to Nigerian suppliers moved from 59.6% in 2024 to 62% in 2025.
That trend is important. But again, the amount matters less than what it builds.
The goal is not supplier dependency. The goal is supplier competitiveness.
When a serious company like MTN places real commercial demand into the local economy, that demand can help businesses grow.
But for that to become true local content, five things should happen.
First, there is spend – demand for Nigerian goods and services.
Second, standards improve – because suppliers must meet requirements around governance, quality, delivery, safety, compliance and ethics.
Third, skills deepen – people learn, specialise and build technical capability.
Fourth, scale happens – suppliers invest, employ more people and expand capacity.
And finally, markets open – stronger businesses become capable of winning beyond one client and, ultimately, beyond one country.
The best local content relationship is not one where a supplier becomes permanently dependent on MTN.
It is one where a Nigerian company becomes strong enough to compete anywhere.
Shared Value: When local value compounds, participation deepens.
This slide shows what happens when value circulates through the economy.
MTN’s value chain reaches far beyond our own financial statements.
Over 7 trillion in taxes and statutory payments since inception.
Over 1 trillion in digital infrastructure investment in 2025 alone.
More than 99% Nigerian workforce.
346,000 shareholders as at June 2026.
These are not disconnected statistics. They are different expressions of the same idea: shared value.
When taxes are paid, national institutions are supported. When infrastructure is built, economic capacity expands. When Nigerians lead the business, professional capability deepens. When Nigerians own shares, wealth participation broadens. When suppliers grow, enterprise strengthens.
This is why I always say that MTN cannot succeed sustainably if Nigeria does not succeed.
Our customers are Nigerians. Our employees are Nigerians. Our suppliers are Nigerian businesses. Our shareholders include Nigerian individuals and institutions. Our network is embedded in Nigerian communities.
Our future is therefore inseparable from Nigeria’s future.
So shared growth is not charity. It is not public relations. It is enlightened business logic.
It is what happens when value circulates through businesses, people, government, ownership and communities.
The Multiplier: From supplier to enterprise.
A good local content relationship should leave the supplier stronger than it found it.
It begins with opportunity a real commercial contract and predictable demand.
Then standards – quality, governance, compliance and delivery discipline.
Then capability – specialist skills, systems, technology and people.
Then scale – more employees, more equipment, more capacity and more investment.
Then independence new customers and less dependence on one client.
And finally, expansion – new sectors, new markets and African growth.
But let me make a point clearly.
Local content must not mean lower standards. It must not mean entitlement. It must not mean awarding contracts simply because a company is Nigerian.
That would weaken the very businesses we are trying to strengthen.
The ambition must be higher: to build Nigerian companies that can compete with any company, anywhere in the world.
Large corporations must create access, transfer knowledge, develop suppliers and give credible companies a pathway to scale.
But local companies must also invest in governance, quality, technology, people, delivery discipline and innovation.
The goal is not protection from global competition. The goal is preparation for global competition.
Partner Stories: Different starting points. One shared pattern.
This slide brings the story to life.
Local content is ultimately not an abstract policy. It is seen in businesses, entrepreneurs and people who started with opportunity and then built capability over time.
Udeme Ufot and SO&U represent one example. Founded in 1990, SO&U became an early MTN brand partner from 2001 and has grown into a multi-service communications group.
Yemi Chukwurah and Seams & Stitches show another part of the story: from modest uniform supply into a textile enterprise with a factory of more than 100 tailors serving corporate clients.
Ayeni Adekunle and BHM reflect the power of ideas, communications, storytelling and Nigerian intellectual capital: from a two-bedroom flat in 2006 to an international communications firm with offices in Lagos, London and Edinburgh.
Afolabi Sobande and CWG represent Nigerian technology capability: a Nigerian technology company founded in 1992, expanded across Africa, and partnered with MTN on digital financial solutions.
Their stories are not proof that one client built them. That would be unfair to their own entrepreneurship, courage and discipline.
But their stories do show that long-term opportunity, credible demand, capability and entrepreneurship can reinforce one another.
That is the kind of ecosystem Nigeria must build more deliberately.
The Next 25: From local procurement to local innovation.
Today, 62% of procurement is local.
That is progress.
But the remaining 38% is not something to hide from.
It is the opportunity.
Some categories cannot yet be sourced locally at scale: certain radio equipment, devices, core software and specialist technology layers.
But that gap is not a failure of commitment. It is the opportunity on the table.
The first phase of local content in telecoms was shaped by rollout, civil works, site acquisition, distribution, marketing support, logistics and operational services.
The next phase must go further.
It must include AI and data. Cloud and data centres. Fibre and 5G. Fintech. Cybersecurity. Content and intellectual property.
Because the next battle is not only about who owns infrastructure.
It is about who owns knowledge.
Who writes the software? Who builds the AI models? Who protects critical digital infrastructure? Who hosts the data? Who builds the platforms? Who creates the intellectual property? Who develops solutions that can scale across Africa?
Can Nigeria move from being a market for technology to becoming a producer of technology for Africa?
I believe the answer is yes.
But it will require deliberate policy, patient capital, corporate access, skills development, quality education, supplier investment and a much higher level of ambition from Nigerian businesses themselves.
Closing: Build Nigerian. Compete anywhere.
Build Nigerian. Compete anywhere.
That, for me, is the promise of local content.
Use spend to build capability.
Build businesses that can win beyond one client.
Turn Nigerian capability into African scale.
Twenty-five years ago, a telecommunications investment entered Nigeria.
Twenty-five years later, there is an ecosystem of infrastructure, enterprise, skills, ownership and shared value around it.
That is worth celebrating.
But anniversaries can be dangerous if they make us spend too much time looking backwards.
The real question is not only what we built in the last 25 years.
The real question is what Nigeria must build in the next 25.
Can we build globally competitive Nigerian technology companies? Can Nigerian fintech platforms scale across Africa? Can Nigerian software, content and intellectual property travel beyond our borders? Can Nigerian suppliers become African champions? Can local content become not just a procurement target, but an industrial strategy?
I believe we can.
But only if we understand that local content is not about where something is bought.
It is about where value is created.
Value is created when people acquire skills, when businesses improve standards, when suppliers scale, when ownership broadens, when innovation deepens, and when Nigerian capability becomes exportable.
So, if the first 25 years were about connecting Nigerians, the next 25 must be about unleashing what connected Nigerians can create.
That is our opportunity.
That is our responsibility.
And together, that can be our legacy.
Thank you.