MTN CEO says company outgrew S/A amid migration tensions

As protests in South Africa spark retaliatory outrage across the rest of Africa, Ralph Mupita, MTN group CEO, has underscored the company’s true pan-African nature, emphasising that its financial and operational heart beats far beyond South Africa’s borders.

The reality of Africa’s corporate landscape is that successful multinationals quickly outgrow their countries of origin.

According to GSMA Intelligence, Africa is the fastest-growing mobile market globally, driven predominantly by large population centres such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Targeting a company solely based on its headquarters ignores the vast, decentralised nature of its continental wealth generation and local reinvestment.

In an interview with Bloomberg detailing the pressure South African firms face amidst these protests, Mupita dropped a crucial statistic that reframes the entire debate.

“MTN makes less than 20 percent in South Africa and makes 80 percent of our earnings elsewhere,” he said. This stark 80/20 split demonstrates that demanding any company to leave Nigeria is not a sanction against Pretoria, but a disruption of a predominantly non-South African revenue engine that drives local economies.

Mupita used the opportunity to pivot the conversation toward solutions, taking to LinkedIn to outline the foundational elements required to move past these recurring crises.

“The future of Africa depends on greater social solidarity, increasing economic integration and the observance of the rule of law,” he noted. By championing economic integration, Mupita underscores that cross-border business is the strongest connective tissue holding the continent together during political storms.

To dismantle the Afrophobia narrative, citizens and policymakers alike must recognise that pan-African businesses are shared assets. Protecting these entities from nationalistic crossfire is essential to maintaining the robust economic integration necessary for Africa to compete on the global stage.