Chief Digital Officer of MTN Ghana, Ibrahim Misto has presented the company’s strategic vision to spearhead Africa’s shift to an AI-driven economy, establishing the telecom behemoth as a crucial facilitator of the continent’s digital future.
He emphasised MTN Ghana’s expanding role beyond connectivity into AI infrastructure, digital platforms, and ecosystem development during a panel discussion on “From Compute to Capital: Building, Adopting, and Financing Africa’s AI Economy for Sovereignty and Growth” at the Rethink Africa Intelligence Conference 2026.
According to Misto, MTN Ghana is transforming from a conventional telecom provider into a technology-driven platform business that uses its vast network, data capabilities, and alliances to spur innovation in a variety of sectors.
“Telecoms have traditionally made connections between people [and] now, we are connecting individuals and businesses to AI infrastructure,” he stated..
According to Misto, establishing open digital platforms that allow companies and developers to innovate at scale, increase high-speed connectivity and leverage MTN’s fintech environment, are the cornerstones of MTN Ghana’s strategy.
He mentioned that MTN is already using cloud capabilities and AI-driven solutions to help businesses create and grow digital services effectively.
“We are now developing an intelligent layer on top of data that improves user experience, supports better judgements, and provides individualised services.,” he said.
The MTN Ghana CDO emphasised that trust is still essential to the company’s operations, especially as the business expands its use of AI and data.
“The foundation of our company is trust. We are dedicated to making sure that the data that customers entrust us with is secure, anonymised, and utilised appropriately,” he said.
He clarified that MTN Ghana is delivering creative, customer-focused solutions while maintaining regulatory compliance by striking a balance between value creation and robust data protection procedures.
Misto noted that MTN Ghana is aggressively investing in AI-enabled platforms and local compute capacity as crucial infrastructure areas to increase effect.
”I would say all components are important, but we are focusing on AI-enabled platforms and local compute because they will deliver the greatest value,” he said.
He cited MTN’s API-driven ecosystem as a significant breakthrough that makes it possible for businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers to easily incorporate services like digital identification and payments into their products.
“The goal is to provide an open ecosystem that allows stakeholders to contribute, develop, and expand solutions. He stated, “MTN is positioning itself as the orchestrator of that ecosystem.”
