Toriola: 5G Will Offer Huge Opportunities for Transformation, Economic Growth

Emma Okonji

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Carl Toriola, has promised to make 5G technology accessible to all Nigerians, through a widespread coverage of the MTN 5G network in all the 36 states of the federation, insisting that 5G will offer Nigeria huge opportunities for transformation and economic growth.

Toriola gave the promise during the visit of Fellows of MTN Media Innovation Programme (MIP-2) to MTN’s head office in Ikoyi, Lagos, led by the Director, Professional Education Programme, Pan Atlantic University, Dr. Isaac Ogugua Ezechukwu, recently.  

Toriola said MTN was among the first two successful bidders of 5G technology in Nigeria and became the first to launch 5G technology services in Nigeria.

According to him, “5G offers huge opportunities for transformation and growth, with low latency and high speed connectivity. As a Nigerian telecoms company, MTN is fully committed to the development of the Nigeria telecoms sector. We have procured a permanent site to build MTN’s head office in Lagos and we hope to complete it in the next four years. We are committed in the road construction on the Onitsha-Enugu express way, under the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme (RITC Scheme), and the construction work is on-going. The contractors handling the project were contracted by the Federal Ministry of Works, but MTN is paying them under the RITC scheme arrangement.”

Toriola added: “With MTN Foundation, we have touched the lives of millions of people in every single local government area across the 36 states of the federation. The foundation focuses on education, women and youth empowerment, community development and healthcare. Since inception in 2005, MTN Foundation has spent over N25.7 billion touching lives and communities in various ways.

“MTN is a complaint company that follows the rules and regulations of the Nigerian government to the letter. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), recently gave MTN Nigeria an award as the Most Tax Compliant Company. Again the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), last year, gave MTN Nigeria the Most Progressive Company (Gender Quality) in Nigeria and we are very humble in obeying the laws as we stand firm to our beliefs and corporate policies.”

The Chief Technical Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mohammed Rufai, who was part of the management team that received the MTN MIP-2 Fellows during the visit, said: “After the successful bidding of 5G technology in 2021, MTN Nigeria rolled out 5G services in seven cites and later expanded to 13 cities, with a plan to cover additional eight cities before the end of the year. Gradually, we hope to roll out 5G services across all states of the federation and give all Nigerians 5G access.”