How MTN Group’s alliance with Microsoft will transform African businesses

MTN Group recently announced a strategic alliance agreement with Microsoft that is premised on a shared vision of driving technological growth in Africa.

• Learn how MTN Group’s alliance with Microsoft can benefit your business.

This partnership aligns with MTN Group’s Ambition 2025 strategy, which is anchored on its belief that Everybody deserves the benefits of a modern connected life.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Microsoft, a company with the strength and scale to complement MTN’s capabilities and to support our Ambition 2025 strategy,” said MTN Group Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Chika Ekeji.

Through this partnership, MTN Group will collaborate directly with Microsoft to offer its various platforms, solutions, and capabilities to African businesses.

This will allow it to leverage Microsoft’s expertise to create new value for its African customers, while also transforming and modernising its existing communications and technology infrastructure.

The cloud, for example, has been accepted as a key driver of digital transformation – and MTN Group’s strategic alliance with Microsoft is a big step towards maximising its cloud offering to African businesses.

MTN Business will also be able to offer advanced services across tools like Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, improving business productivity and helping African companies to thrive.

Collaboration

MTN has confirmed that it will work with Microsoft on joint go-to-market plans, too, with the aim to provide even more value to the African market.

This will pair MTN Group’s extensive understanding of the continent’s connectivity and technology sectors with Microsoft’s world-renowned technical products, and will hugely benefit African companies through superior, custom-designed solutions.

These go-to-market plans will involve the upskilling of MTN Group employees to improve their ability to sell Microsoft’s transformative products and cloud services in Africa.

“Together we will use the power of technology and connectivity to innovate and accelerate the digitalisation and development of the continent,” said Ekeji.

Growing the digital economy

Importantly, the partnership between MTN Group and Microsoft presents an excellent opportunity to stimulate Africa’s digital economy.

According to the UN, only 33% of the African population used the Internet last year – showing the important role companies like MTN Group and Microsoft can play to stimulate the digital economy at a grassroots level.

This is a sentiment echoed by the World Bank, which has emphasised the need for Africa to “think big on digital development.”

“To become tomorrow’s innovators … businesses need to utilize digitally-centred business models to connect with the hundreds of millions of customers previously out of reach [of the Internet] due to geography or low income,” said the World Bank.

MTN Group and Microsoft are therefore committed to helping businesses leverage the full benefits of connectivity and digital technologies to empower citizens across Africa.

Learn how MTN Group’s alliance with Microsoft can benefit your business.

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How MTN Group’s alliance with Microsoft will transform African businesses