MTN Group said it expected its fibre footprint across the African continent to increase to between 420,000km and 560,000km by 2030 as it targeted 100 million new data customers.

This comes as the telecom giant planned to bridge what it sees as an enormous digital infrastructure gap on the continent and meet a growing demand for connectivity.

Mazen Mroué, CEO for digital infrastructure at MTN, detailed the group’s plans for its connectivity platforms to meet the Ambition 2030 strategy, where infrastructure is a major pillar.

He was speaking during MTN Group’s recent Capital Markets Day 2026, where executives highlighted the company’s ongoing strategies after a comprehensive review in 2025.

“When we look at the fibre core, our fibre footprint is expected to grow, increasing by three times from our current 140,000 kilometres over the next five years,” said Mroué.

“This will be backed by subsea capacity, which is important for connecting the African continent to the rest of the world.”

He said that MTN Group expected its subsea capacity to double heading into 2030. The group manages subsea and terrestrial wholesale capacity through its subsidiary, Bayobab.

The company is an owner of the 2Africa cable system, the longest subsea cable system in the world, connecting African countries to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Other owners, as part of a consortium, included China Mobile International, Meta Platforms, Orange, Center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC.

The cable system is over 45,000km long and has the highest capacity of all subsea cables currently serving the continent at 180 Tbps.

With the added fibre and subsea capacity, MTN plans to become the wholesaler of choice for entities in African countries.

“We are building a differentiated, integrated open-access platform,” said Mroué.

“There are many players on the continent playing in different ways, but very few have that integrated proposition or structure in place.”

The plan also included its renewed strategy to own its cellular towers through the ongoing acquisition of infrastructure from IHS.

“Our tower company approach, in terms of owning back these assets, creates a significant amount of economic efficiency and value,” he said.

“It also benefits our customers, who take advantage of the infrastructure by leveraging the open-access model.”

Mroué said that MTN decided to sell its towers 10 years ago because it lacked the right expertise to run the tower company, but it now sees a huge opportunity with the buyback.

The acquisition allowed MTN to incorporate talent from IHS teams and their expertise to operate the tower infrastructure.

“Through this, we believe there is a huge amount of already identified synergies,” he said.

Connecting 70 million active data users

During his part of the presentation, Mroué also revealed that the company’s data centre project would be an 80–150MW facility upon completion.

“This is a scalable ambition that leverages joint venture opportunities we are currently putting in place,” he said.

In March, MTN identified Nigeria and South Africa as priority markets for developing new data centres, following what it said were extensive market assessments.

“Following a rigorous evaluation process, we have shortlisted key strategic partners with whom negotiations are progressing on co-investment structures and operating models,” the group explained.

“The broader industry shift toward large-scale AI compute infrastructure reinforces the substantial opportunity MTN Digital Infrastructure is positioning for in Africa.”

Alongside its data centre ambitions, the company also expressed ambitious plans for its active data user growth in the next five years.

According to Selorm Adadevoh, group chief commercial officer, MTN expects to grow its active data users by 60 to 70 million as it seeks to reach as many customers as possible.

“A lot of this will be driven by the youth who are coming online,” said Adadevoh.

He explained that MTN was betting on a huge increase in unconnected young people across the continent to want online access.

“Smartphone penetration is in the upper 60%, while active data user penetration is in the upper 50%, so there is a gap,” he said.

“Today, we have over 300 million customers, of which about 175 million are active data users. That leaves a gap of at least 100 million.”

Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO, said the company expected data consumption to double before the end of the decade across its markets.

He said MTN was pursuing connecting 20 to 30 million homes with its communications offerings. including fibre-to-the-home and fixed wireless access (FWA).

Source: My Broadband