MTN\u2019s interest in adjacent businesses reflects the need to identify new sources of growth as expansion in its traditional telecommunications market eventually slows.\n<\/p>\n
Toriola said companies must look towards industries that complement their existing assets and capabilities to sustain growth over time.<\/p>\n
Financial services emerged as one of such opportunities for MTN across Africa. However, he said the company\u2019s entry into Nigeria\u2019s financial services market faced resistance from traditional banks.\n<\/p>\n
He noted that the resistance did not address the needs of customers who remained underserved by existing financial institutions.\n<\/p>\n
The emergence of digital financial service providers such as OPay and Moniepoint illustrates how businesses have expanded access to services through alternative channels.\n<\/p>\n
Toriola also stressed that strategies successful in one African market cannot automatically be replicated in another. Nigeria\u2019s financial services environment, including its instant interbank transfer infrastructure, requires companies to develop capabilities suited to local conditions.\n<\/p>\n
MTN has consequently had to bring in people with a deeper understanding of the Nigerian market, he said.<\/p>\n
AI investment requires discipline<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence presents another opportunity for MTN, although Toriola acknowledged that the technology\u2019s ultimate impact remains uncertain.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI am myself learning about AI,\u201d he said, describing the technology as potentially transformative while cautioning that its eventual impact is difficult to predict.\n<\/p>\n He said companies must distinguish between technologies that attract attention and those capable of materially changing their business.\n<\/p>\n When evaluating an investment, Toriola said he asks whether the opportunity could significantly alter MTN\u2019s growth trajectory. If a project would remain relatively insignificant even under the most optimistic scenario, he is sceptical about committing substantial resources to it.<\/p>\n However, he acknowledged that an overly cautious approach could cause a company to overlook promising innovations.\n<\/p>\n He cited mobile money as an example of a service whose potential might not initially have been obvious but which went on to address a practical problem which is enabling people to transfer money without depending entirely on traditional banking channels.\n<\/p>\n Toriola said companies must allow employees to experiment with new ideas while ensuring those experiments do not expose the wider business to disproportionate risk.\n<\/p>\n The challenge for\u00a0 MTN is to pursue innovations capable of creating meaningful new revenue streams without compromising the telecommunications infrastructure on which its existing business depends.\n<\/p>\n Folake Balogun is a technology journalist covering Africa\u2019s digital economy, with a focus on startups, fintechs, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies. Her work explores the intersection of technology, business, and society, highlighting how innovation is reshaping industries and everyday life across Africa and global markets. She translates complex trends into insightful and impactful stories for a wider audience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Source: <\/p>\n MTN Nigeria will prioritise securing its core telecommunications business before allocating additional capital to new digital ventures, including fintech and artificial intelligence, as it weighs the cost of improving network… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related News<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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