MTN Nigeria has called on both the public and private sectors to collaborate in tackling the challenges and opportunities linked to Artificial Intelligence development in the country.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Karl Toriola, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja. He presented a paper titled “Toward a United AI Strategy for Africa” during a plenary session at the 2025 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, GITEX.
The event, with the theme “Building Continental Digital Foundations for Equitable AI Development,” is a four-day programme. The summit is holding in Abuja from September 1 to September 2, while the exhibition is taking place in Lagos from September 3 to September 4.
Toriola explained that Nigeria needs to expand data infrastructure, improve power supply, and develop skills to support AI growth. He said this would require patience, long-term planning, and stronger capacity to implement effective solutions.
“I would love to see a headline that says, Nigeria has articulated a clear strategy on how to advance artificial intelligence. I would like to read that it has harnessed the resources, both private and public, and is executing them with discipline and labour,” he said.
He identified a major data centre capacity gap in the country. According to him, Nigeria faces an estimated 90-megawatt shortfall.
Toriola also stressed that poor electricity supply remains a serious challenge. He explained that Artificial Intelligence data centres require huge energy resources. “AI data centre that are being built today are of the scale that they need one nuclear power plant per data centre. And that is where we have a huge gap,” he noted.
He further advised that Nigeria must build sovereign data ecosystems. This, he said, will demand collective investment in computing infrastructure.
“There is about a 90-megawatt gap in terms of data centre capacity today. It is estimated that data consumption from AI will be 16-fold of what we are consuming today. What we, as a nation, are going to try to do is to build sovereign data ecosystems, which requires computing infrastructure collectively. We do have some connectivity, but it is a long way to go,” he explained.
Toriola said MTN will keep investing in solutions that empower consumers, Small and Medium Enterprises, and large corporations to take advantage of AI opportunities.
Industry players from across Africa and beyond, including governments, academia, and private companies, are part of the programme.