The MTN Group has announce that it has reached its Ambition 2025 strategic target of serving 300 million customers across Africa, marking a historic moment in its three-decade journey of driving digital transformation on the contient.
The African technology giant announced this at its annual Ambassadors Appreciation Dinner, where it hosted leaders of Africa’s diplomatic and public sector, as part of its commitment to connecting communities across Africa.
The gathering brought together diplomats and senior officials, the CEOs from across MTN’s markets, and members of the MTN Group Executive Committee to strengthen collaboration, investment and policy alignment in support of the continent’s digital transformation.
In 2020, when the MTN Group first announced its Agenda 2025 Strategy, it had 279.6 million subscribers across its 18 African markets, after adding 28.8 million customers in that year alone.
The company has since sold its operations in Guinea and Guinea Bissau to Telecel, and is now left with full operations in 16 African country, and enterprise services in a total of 24 countries.
It’s biggest market is Nigeria, where it recorded over 89 million customers in September 2025, followed by South Africa with almost 40 million customers, then Ghana with almost 30 million as of Q1 2025.
So between its three top markets alone, the company has over 160 million subscribers.
Of the over 300 million subscribers reached this year, more than half are active data customers. In Ghana, MTN commands about 80% of total data subscriptions, making it the overwhelming market leader.
Indeed, in most of the 16 countries where MTN operates, it is the market leader.
MTN has for several years now been focused on just Africa, after checking out of the Middle East. The company has since been at the forefront of driving digital transformation, financial inclusion, and connecting communities in Africa.
At the Ambassadors Appreciation Dinner, MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita, stated that “The time is now for Africa to take charge of its own socioeconomic progress. We need to look within for solutions and to develop our own communities,” referencing global geopolitical uncertainty which had curtailed the foreign aid on which large parts of our continent had typically depended.
Mupita drew encouragement from MTNers and their communities who weren’t deterred by the challenges they face, choosing rather to roll up their sleeves in the annual 21 Days of Y’ello Care campaign and work together to extend digital and financial inclusion, particularly in rural, remote and underserved areas.
“Tonight, we celebrate our Y’ello Care employee volunteers and take inspiration from their can-do attitude. We also celebrate their dedication which has led to the Group meeting a strategic milestone by serving more than 300 million customers a mere three decades since the start of our first commercial operation in South Africa,” he stated.
MTN Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer Nompilo Morafo said the 2025 Y’ello Care campaign – themed “Connecting at the Roots: Connecting communities through the use of digital tools” – illustrated how collaboration and innovation translate into progress across communities.
Through initiatives developed by employees and local partners, it demonstrated how digital tools are expanding opportunity and improving everyday life across Africa.
“Y’ello Care embodies our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, while reminding us that progress is ultimately built through people – our ideas, commitment and compassion,” she said. “I am grateful to MTNers, partners and community collaborators who continue to bring this belief to life.”
Mupita thanked the diplomatic community for its continued partnership and for supporting an enabling environment that fosters sustainable investment and innovation.
He noted that this spirit of collaboration remains vital as Africa advances toward the goals of Agenda 2063, reaffirming that the journey is ambitious but achievable, grounded in partnership and guided by a vision of an inclusive digital future.
