Ralph Mupita

Zimbabwe

CEO of MTN, the continent’s leading telecommunications operator, he advocates ethical and responsible AI “by and for Africa”.

A Zimbabwean engineer, Ralph Mupita was appointed CEO of MTN at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Founded in Johannesburg in 1994, the mobile operator is present in around 20 markets across Africa and the Middle East, providing voice, data and financial services through its MoMo mobile-money platform. This astute executive has successfully turned around the continent’s largest telecommunications operator, with more than 300 million subscribers. He now aims to transform MTN into a genuine technology platform capable of competing with Silicon Valley giants, notably by building a network of data centres across the continent that could then be leased to businesses and governments. MTN Genova, a programme dedicated to AI, aims to “develop responsible AI, by and for Africans, to reshape Africa, put the continent at the forefront of technology and offer a promising future.” As early as 2025, Mupita was calling on African governments to “thoroughly reform outdated regulations” that too often constrain the continent’s telecommunications sector: “Frameworks designed for the voice era risk holding back the transition to digital.” In January, he joined the board of Dangote Fertiliser, where he is helping to support the development of the Nigerian conglomerate’s subsidiary, which aims to become the continent’s largest fertiliser producer by 2028, notably through the opening of a new plant in Ethiopia. Mupita’s broad vision and ambitions contributed to his appointment last July to the United Nations AI for Good Commission, an initiative led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and co-chaired by Paul Kagame and Marc Benioff, where he is one of the few African business leaders represented.