Speaking on the theme, Leveraging Technology & Digital Education for Mass Employment, Wealth Creation and Poverty Alleviation, Toriola said technology and education can drive large-scale transformation by unlocking access to both global and local job markets.

He explained that digital tools enable entrepreneurship, remote work, and access to essential services, especially in underserved areas.

He pointed out several barriers: the infrastructure deficit caused by high deployment costs, poor electricity, and insecurity in rural areas; digital literacy and education gaps; gender and regional disparities; outdated or inconsistent government policies and weak public-private coordination.

Referencing a story about a high-achieving Nigerian doctor, he said,

“I saw an article a few days ago about a Nigerian medical student or doctor that qualified simultaneously in [different] specializations of medicine. It’s incredible what some of our people are doing. Our youths are ready. Our systems must be ready too.”

Among his recommendations, Dr. Karl Toriola called for expanded digital infrastructure, changes to school curricula, stronger public-private partnerships, and programs designed with gender and cultural awareness in mind.

“We must make education employable,” he said. “We have to create the opportunities for students to practice what they are learning with institutions, private-sector institutions that are using those skills of the future.”

Toriola also emphasized that while automation and robotics dominate conversations about the digital economy, there is still significant opportunity in content creation, manufacturing, and agriculture.

“Huge opportunities exist in Nigeria. We need to provide the environment for the Nigerian youth to thrive by driving connectivity, changing the curricula to allow our students to acquire the skills that are required in the job market of today.”

He closed with a message of encouragement, saying, “It does not matter however you start. Where you get to at the end of the day is a product of how dedicated, focused and hardworking you are. Never give up. Nigerians have an immeasurable capacity to deliver if given the right opportunities.”

Earlier, Folajimi Oyekunle, deputy chief of Staff to the Oyo State Governor, delivered the welcome address on behalf of Governor Seyi Makinde.

He noted that the lecture’s theme was timely and aligned with the administration’s focus on innovation and inclusive development.

Citing initiatives such as the Waste to Wealth program, which created 12,000 direct jobs, and the recruitment of 21,000 teachers, he highlighted efforts to improve employment outcomes in the state.

He also mentioned that the state’s internally generated revenue had risen to 8.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared to a pre-2019 average of 1.6 billion.

“The government so far has worked in line with all stakeholders to create an enabling environment for job creation, which gives our graduates the opportunity to be employed in government work. As a government, we continue to support and encourage wealth in the state and also to support programs like this, which in one way or the other, gives back to their school,” he said.

Other dignitaries present at the event included the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade; Dr. Gani Adeniran, retired lecturer from the University of Ibadan’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, who served as Father of the Day; and Professor Gabriel Ogunmola, Chancellor of Lead City University, Ibadan.

Initiatives like MTN’s recently launched Digital Skills Academy reiterate the company’s commitment to expanding digital access and opportunity.

The platform includes a career guidance tool to help users identify and pursue paths aligned with their strengths and market demand.

It forms part of the MTN Foundation’s Digital Skills for Digital Jobs programme, which supports the National Digital Economy Policy and Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education.

According to the report filed with the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) on Friday, the company reported a 45.5 per cent upswing in net profit of N298.65 billion from N205.21 billion in the corresponding period of 2020.

Key highlights of the report

• Voice call and Data Subscription raked in N819 bn and N516 bn, respectively, compared with N766 billion and N332 billion in the corresponding period of 2020.
• Revenue from interconnect and roaming increased y-o-y by 26.74% to stand at N168 billion.
• Expenses on adverts, sponsorships and, sales promotion grew by 44% which suggests that active marketing contributed to the growth in sales.
• Other expense line items as revealed in the income statement are interconnect costs and discount & commissions which advanced by 13.43% and 14.11%, respectively.
• Taxation for the period amounted to approximately N138 bn appreciating by over 47%, as contained in the financial statement.
• In 2021 FY, net profit appreciated by 45.53% from N205.21 billion to N298.65 billion.
• The company’s net assets increased by N86.60 billion from N178.39 bn recorded as at December 2020 to N264.98 bn in the period under review. However, Total assets stood at N2.26 trillion.
• MTN Nigeria Plc is currently trading at N190.00 per share and its market capitalization stands at N3.87 trillion as at Friday, January 28, 2021. Year-to-date performance shows that the share price of the company has declined by 3.55%.

Analysis of the financial report reveals that the leading telecoms company generates the bulk of its revenue from voice calls and data subscriptions, however, during the period, customers spent more on data subscriptions, increasing the revenue line by 55.31 per cent while revenue from voice calls appreciated by 6.96 per cent.

The Company has three reportable business segments which are Customer business unit, Enterprise business unit and Wholesale business unit.

The customer business unit generated N1.46 trillion, making up 88 per cent of the total revenue. The enterprise business unit generated N148 billion, while wholesale business unit generated the least revenue of N47.67 billion.

Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria CEO, comments:

“2021 was a significant year for our Company. We commemorated our 20th anniversary with a celebration of our customers and all the stakeholder relationships that enabled our journey.

“In addition, we made good progress towards our Ambition 2025 objectives, demonstrating the strength and resilience of the business. This reflects the firm foundations on which our business is built, the tenacity and commitment of our people, and the support of our stakeholders.

“We continue to deepen our contributions to society in line with our priority to enhance shared value. During the year, our total contribution to the Government through direct and indirect taxes was N669.2 billion, up 83.4%, representing approximately 40% of our total revenue.

We extended our interventions, in response to the challenges to our nation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a further N1.5 billion to the Coalition Against Covid-19 (CACOVID) in support of efforts aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

“This is supplementary to other interventions to protect the health and well-being of our people, customers and stakeholders. We also worked hard across our business to embed new ways of working while harnessing the opportunities presented by the trends in digital adoption.

In line with our objective to share our Company’s success with our various stakeholders, the first phase of a series of transactions to increase Nigerian ownership in MTN Nigeria was conducted during 2021 by way of bookbuild to institutional investors and fixed price offer to retail investors (the Offer).

“The outcome of the Offer will be announced once regulatory approvals have been obtained. In addition, we committed to participating in the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit scheme to rehabilitate the Enugu-Onitsha expressway, with ongoing engagement to kick off the project.

“We signed a five-year deal to support the Nigerian Football Federation as the official communications partner and actively supported the Super Eagles’ participation in the African Cup of Nations competition. We are also committed to designing and constructing a new, world-class corporate headquarters.

Operationally, our mobile subscriber base declined by 10.6% and was impacted by the regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations.

“However, we are pleased to have returned to positive growth in Q4 2021, adding approximately 1 million subscribers as we continued to ramp up the alignment of our SIM registration and activation centres with the regulations.”