By Chinenye Anuforo
The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, has disclosed that high cost of mobile phones is the significant challenge hindering digital inclusion in the country.
Toriola disclosed this during the “Tech into the Future” interview hosted by Tomiwa Aladekomo and Ngozi Madueke-Dozie on Arise TV.
Since the rollout of 5G technology in 2022, Toriola confirmed the coverage has quadrupled in the country. “5G has been instrumental towards servicing digitization; a lot of people are shifting their consumption from traditional voice and circuit switch services to data services and probably the biggest barrier to that is actually the cost of handsets,” he added.
Toriola further stated that while the global demand has led to a reduction in smartphone costs, Nigeria alone might not generate enough demand to bring down prices as quickly. He suggested that local assembling could help reduce production costs and eliminate custom duties, making smartphones more affordable.
Discussing financing solutions, he stressed the importance of aggregate credit scoring history for citizens to finance their mobile devices. “There’s quite a number of companies in Africa that are working on that in partnership with us, and while it may take a bit of time for that momentum to be built, our mobile money PSB – MoMo will enable us predict behavioural patterns and credit worthiness,” he added.
By working on these technologies, MTN aims to make smartphones accessible to a broader population, allowing people to pay for their devices responsibly over an extended period.
Recognizing the challenges, Toriola emphasised the need for collaboration with regulators. “MTN is actively working with the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and regulatory authorities to address the issue of device affordability and promote digital inclusion in Nigeria.”
Reacting to the MTN-Glo interconnect debt issue, Toriola said, “Suffice it to say that we have between the NCC and the CBN, the most developed regulatory bodies who arbitrate on such matters and whatever we do in that dispute or that discourse will be in line with what the NCC dictates. The NCC is very competent in addressing such issues; they’ve come out with authorization for disconnection and that has been put on hold to give an opportunity to address these issues. But what I can say is that MTN will always act in the most professional, most compliant manner, and we will not do anything that hasn’t been authorised by our licensing conditions or the regulator.”
While probing further on industry dynamics and the origin of the company, he reiterated that the ICT company is a solely Nigerian company. “We are a Nigerian company, registered in Nigeria with Nigerian shareholders. If you look at our leadership cadre, you’ll see that the company is 90% led at the very top level by Nigerians, and I don’t think we have more than 10 expatriates in this company.We have a very seasoned board of Nigerian directors as well as some international directors. We’ve grown to this size because we’ve done the right things at the right time. You cannot force customers to make their choice with their wallets,” he added.
The ICT company remains committed to integrating digital competencies, prioritising customer satisfaction, whilst operating with the highest levels of compliance to industry standards.