The programme is expected to begin on Wednesday and comes as demand for digital infrastructure increases across Africa.

Growth in cloud services, artificial intelligence workloads and enterprise data storage has increased requirements on operators to find engineers who can run critical systems.

Experts in the sector say new facilities are opening, but skilled workers remain in short supply.

“There’s a lot of recycling of the same people across companies,” said Adebola Adefarati, Rack Centre’s head of marketing and communications. “People move from one data centre or telco to another, and it becomes a closed loop. The industry has to start creating new talent.”

Rack Centre said many operators still depend on internal training because experienced workers are limited. The problem is bigger in Africa, where specialised training is scarce and trained staff are usually hired away by foreign firms.

According to the company, engineers who can manage infrastructure in Nigeria are especially attractive abroad because they already understand how to work under difficult conditions such as unstable grid power and high temperatures.

“Once people gain experience running reliable systems in Nigeria, they become prime targets,” Adefarati said. “We’ve seen a number of our own people leave for opportunities abroad.”

Rather than compete for the same workers, Rack Centre said it wants to help build a larger talent pipeline for the industry.

Data centres usually run with small teams, but those teams need specialised knowledge. Staff must manage power systems, cooling equipment, network hardware, monitoring tools and emergency response systems around the clock.

The first group will take in between 15 and 20 trainees. Rack Centre said only some may join the company after graduation, while others could move into jobs with telecom firms and other data centre operators.

Participants will receive classroom training, technical certifications and practical experience inside a live operating facility. One certification track will be delivered with Schneider Electric’s training platform. The full programme will run for about four to five months.

Rack Centre said it will fully cover the estimated $2,500 cost per participant.

“The issue is not that people aren’t studying engineering,” Adefarati said. “It’s that they’re not trained to work on systems that must run 100% of the time. Data centres are different. You’re dealing with redundant power, precision cooling, and real-time fault detection in a highly sensitive environment.”

The company said operating in Nigeria brings added pressure. Cooling systems must work efficiently in extreme heat, while power infrastructure must cope with an unreliable national grid.

Rack Centre is also developing the programme with the Africa Data Centres Association, which is working towards training up to 1,000 professionals over the next two years.

The initiative also aims to improve gender balance in the sector. Women are still underrepresented in many technical operations roles, and Rack Centre said it wants at least one-third of each cohort to be female.

“Data centres are often seen as hardware,” Adefarati said. “But their success is fundamentally about people.”

The company said the acquisition will strengthen its low Earth orbit project, known as Project Kuiper, though it still trails SpaceX and its Starlink service by a wide margin.

Through the deal, Amazon gains Globalstar’s existing satellites, spectrum licences and infrastructure. That includes about two dozen satellites already in orbit, which will support its drive into direct-to-device services.

This technology allows mobile phones to connect directly to satellites without relying on ground towers, a feature seen as key for emergency use and coverage in remote areas.

Amazon plans to roll out its own satellite internet service later this year. It is also working towards deploying about 3,200 satellites by 2029, with a regulatory deadline requiring roughly half of that number to be in orbit by July next year.

Globalstar’s network will continue to support services already used by Apple devices. The company powers features such as Emergency SOS and Find My on iPhones and Apple Watches, and Amazon confirmed it has signed an agreement to maintain those services.

Apple had invested about $1.5 billion in Globalstar in 2024, securing a 20% stake to expand its satellite-based communication features. A new network backed by Apple is expected to increase Globalstar’s satellite count to 54.

Amazon said the acquisition will also allow it to introduce direct-to-device services from 2028. The system is expected to support voice, text and data connections, particularly in areas where mobile networks are unavailable.

Panos Panay, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, said: “There are billions of customers out there living, travelling, and operating in places beyond the reach of existing networks, and we started Amazon Leo to help bridge that divide.”

He added: “By combining Globalstar’s proven expertise and strong foundation with Amazon’s customer-obsession and innovation, customers can expect faster, more reliable service in more places, keeping them connected to the people and things that matter most.”

Despite the expansion, Amazon still faces strong competition. Starlink already operates the largest satellite network in the world, with more than 10,000 satellites and over 9 million users globally.

The service accounts for a significant share of SpaceX’s revenue and is growing through partnerships with telecom operators, including T-Mobile.

Analysts say scale is a big advantage for SpaceX. However, Amazon’s access to Globalstar’s spectrum could help it move faster in direct-to-device services, an area where competition is increasing.

Paul Jacobs, Globalstar’s chief executive, said: “We have long believed low Earth orbit satellite constellations offer the most effective path to truly connect users and devices anywhere and anytime.”

The deal offers Globalstar shareholders $90 per share, or the option to receive Amazon stock. That represents a premium of more than 30% compared with the company’s share price before talks became public.

Shares in Globalstar rose after the announcement, while Amazon’s stock also moved higher.

The transaction is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals, including clearance from the Federal Communications Commission, and the achievement of certain deployment milestones.

In a regulatory filing released on April 7, MTN Group confirmed that several senior leaders received ordinary shares under its Performance Share Plan.

The awards were made on March 31, 2026 and come with conditions that tie them to future results.

The biggest allocation went to group chief executive Ralph Mupita, who received 207,633 shares valued at about $2.4 million. The shares will only vest after three years, provided performance targets are met.

Other senior executives also received large grants. Group finance chief Tsholofelo Molefe was awarded 111,931 shares, while Ebenezer Asante received 120,880 shares.

In Nigeria, Karl Toriola was allocated 28,704 shares, worth around $335,000 at the time of the award.

The shares were priced at $11.77 (R192.50) each. Like others in the scheme, they will only become accessible after a three-year period.

MTN said all the share awards were granted off-market and carry direct beneficial interest for the recipients. The vesting date has been set for December 2028.

The filing also shows that executives in key markets receive more than one layer of incentives. In addition to group-level shares, both Toriola and Modupe Kadri are entitled to long-term incentives linked to MTN Nigeria itself.

Across the group, directors and senior officers in South Africa and Ghana were also included in the latest round of awards. These include executives overseeing major subsidiaries and company secretaries, all under the same plan structure.

MTN’s share plan has been in place since 2010. It is designed to reward senior staff while keeping them focused on long-term performance.

The company requires recipients to meet set targets before the shares fully vest, and some may be forfeited if those targets are not achieved.

This digital explosion in Nigeria is triggered in periods like Easter. What used to be a calm religious period has become a peak window for streaming, mobile engagement and digital spending.

Lately, Easter has gone beyond being observed in churches to being consumed across screens.

Pews to platforms

There is still strong church attendance, which has not changed. What has changed is what happens before and after.

Phones are now part of the experience.

Nigeria has over 151 million internet subscribers, almost entirely driven by mobile access. This means Easter is no longer a shared schedule but a personalised, on-demand experience.

The growth of the “digital pulpit”

One of the most obvious changes this year is what I would call the digital pulpit.

Worship is no more tied to location, it moves with the user.

Podcasts, livestreams and recorded sermons are now done alongside traditional services. In many cases, they extend them. A message heard on Sunday is replayed on Monday morning traffic.

The data supports it:

• Faith-based podcast listening is steeply increasing
• More than 90% of streams happen on mobile devices

This is structured engagement not casual listening. Voices like Emmanuel Iren and Femi Lazarus are building large digital audiences. Their content blends theology with production quality, clear audio, clipped messages, and distribution across platforms.

The growth stresses that spiritual influence is longer limited to physical reach because digital distribution now defines it.

What Nigerians are watching: streaming takes over

Easter viewing has changed completely.

It used to be scheduled television, a few biblical films, and fixed times. Now it is on-demand.

• Church services stream live on YouTube
• Films are watched on mobile screens
• Content is replayed, clipped, and shared

At the same time, Nollywood is adjusting.

New titles like Avante (released April 3) are entering a congested digital space, while Behind the Scenes still tops as the highest-grossing Nollywood title into 2026.

Looking at distribution, platforms such as Africa Magic and YouTube are competing for attention, especially for indigenous content. Yoruba and Igbo language productions have seen around 87% growth in viewership and listening over the past year.

Easter is now a competition for attention, not just a moment of reflection.

The gospel streaming explosion

Music is still major during Easter, but the format has changed. Streaming platforms now carry most of the weight.

Data from Spotify shows that gospel and praise streams have grown by over 5,000% since 2021, ascertaining structural growth.

This week, playlists are doing the work once handled by choirs and CDs.

Artists like:

• Nathaniel Bassey
• Moses Bliss
• Dunsin Oyekan

are topping streams.

Dunsin Oyekan’s “Naija Worship” playlist takeover in early April reflects a wider shift. Curation has become as important as creation.

Worship is now on-demand, replayable, and algorithm-driven.

Reading, but differently

Reading has not disappeared, it has just changed shape.

Long books have given way to:

• Daily devotionals
• Short scripture posts
• Mobile-first reading

Apps like YouVersion Bible App are highly used here.

WhatsApp broadcasts and social media captions now carry a large share of spiritual content. It is quick, shareable and constant.

Reflection has been compressed into digital moments.

Gaming: the competitor

There is another aspect to Easter that isn’t usually unnoticed, and that’s gaming.

Holidays create downtime. Downtime drives play.

Titles like:

• Call of Duty: Mobile
• EA Sports FC Mobile

compete directly with films, sermons and music for attention.

Attention is limited.

Even during religious periods, platforms are competing for the same hours.

Social media: where Easter is performed

Easter now lives online.

• Instagram carries fashion and lifestyle
• TikTok spreads choir clips and sermon highlights
• WhatsApp distributes devotionals

What used to be private is now shared.

Easter is no longer just experienced, it is performed.

The economics: follow the data

Behind all this activity is money.

Nigeria’s telecom sector has changed. Data, not voice, now drives revenue growth.

Monthly internet spending has surged, with Nigerians spending an estimated ₦721 billion on data in a single month in 2025.

The beneficiaries are:

• MTN Nigeria
• Airtel Nigeria
• Streaming platforms
• Content creators

There is also a behavioural change.

People are now gifting:

• Data bundles
• Subscriptions
• Digital access

instead of physical items.

Easter consumption can now be measured in gigabytes.

A change driven by pressure

The high prices have made travel and large gatherings more expensive. Many people are staying in, and when they stay in, they go online.

Digital becomes the substitute.

It is cheaper, flexible and fits the moment.

The contradiction

There is a tension at the centre of all this.

Faith encourages stillness.
Technology encourages engagement.

The same platforms that deliver sermons and worship are designed to keep users scrolling, watching and listening.

That tension is not going away.

The change is permanent

Easter itself has not changed, the meaning is the same. But the way Nigerians experience it is what has changed.

Looking at podcasts, playlists, livestreams and even data bundles, we see what Easter is.

It is mobile.
It is personalised.
It is monetised.

And most of all, it is measured in data, in streams, and in time spent on screen.

The result from Brand Finance shows a mix of scale, steady demand for digital services, and steady investment across its operations.

MTN leads with a brand value of about R50.9 billion and its uniqueness isn’t limited to its size, but how it earns across different markets and services.

The group operates in about 16 countries and serves more than 300 million users, providing a wide and stable base of revenue across Africa.

Mobile data is the main growth driver. More users now depend on data for streaming, communication, and everyday digital activity. This supports recurring income and reduces reliance on traditional voice services.

With demand for connectivity growing, MTN benefits directly from increased data usage across its markets.

Fintech services are also a big part of its growth. MTN has expanded mobile money and digital payment platforms in several countries. These services allow users to transfer funds, make payments, and access financial tools through mobile devices.

The expansion adds new revenue streams and strengthens customer engagement within its ecosystem.

Again, infrastructure investment, where MTN continues to expand and upgrade its network to improve coverage and service quality. These improvements help meet rising demand and maintain user trust in its services.

Strong network performance also helps reduce customer loss to competitors.

The group’s long-term brand visibility has long contributed to its position, with MTN maintaining consistent public presence through partnerships and sponsorships over the years, including its long-running association with national rugby. This visibility has supported brand recognition and trust among users.

Looking at the market environment which has also improved, South Africa’s top brands recorded stronger performance in 2026, supported by improved energy supply, easing inflation, and the country’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list in late 2025.

Structural reforms and a sovereign credit rating upgrade by S&P Global around the same period also contributed to renewed investor confidence.

Jeremy Sampson, chairman of Brand Finance Africa, said: “As South Africa’s economic environment stabilises, the country’s leading brands are demonstrating strong resilience and growth. Sectors such as banking, retail, and telecoms continue to anchor the ranking.

“Strong gains in insurance and beers highlight how sustained brand investment and operational performance can translate into significant brand value growth. Strong brands will continue to play an important role in strengthening investor confidence and supporting South Africa’s long-term economic competitiveness.”

Other brands that joined MTN on the 2026 list included Vodacom Group, which ranks second with a brand value of about R47.9 billion, supported by expansion into markets such as Egypt and Ethiopia and increased use of digital financial services.

Standard Bank Group holds third place at roughly R45 billion, driven by strong corporate banking performance and ongoing investment in digital platforms.

First National Bank and Absa Group benefited from high customer adoption of digital banking services. In retail, Checkers was the strongest brand, supported by high consumer trust, expansion of its delivery services, and consistent customer traffic.

PEP recorded the fastest growth among the top brands, rising 76% to R5.8 billion. Its performance showed expansion across its retail network and increased use of digital payments and financial services.

Five new entrants also joined the rankings in 2026, including Savanna, SANRAL, Valterra Platinum, Oros, and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Taken together, MTN’s scale, data-driven revenue, fintech expansion, and steady investment in infrastructure all support its sustained position, even as competition strengthens across telecoms, banking, and retail sectors.

At the same time, the country recorded over 182 million active mobile subscriptions and about 53% broadband penetration as of early 2026.

These statistics are rarely spotlighted in discussions about Nigeria’s tech sector, though they point to the main driver in the field.

While attention is placed on startups, funding rounds and new apps, influence is consolidating around the companies that run the networks.

These include MTN Group and Airtel Africa, not simply as telecom operators, but as companies expanding into digital platforms.

The scale advantage nobody can replicate

Start with distribution. Nigeria has more than 182 million active mobile lines, with stable monthly growth. In January 2026 alone, over 2.5 million new subscriptions were added.

Market share is heavily concentrated, with MTN and Airtel together accounting for close to 86% of mobile connections in the country.

This is not a fragmented market, a small number of operators control access at scale, limiting how far smaller competitors can reach.

That control affects how people come online, how data is used, and how digital services reach users.

Startups build applications, but telcos are in control of the networks on which those applications depend.

From connectivity to control

For years, telecom companies relied on voice calls and SMS for revenue, but that model has changed.

Data now drives earnings, alongside enterprise services and digital offerings.

The transition is measurable and revenue is moving towards:

• mobile data
• business connectivity
• digital service layers

At the same time, telecom operators are expanding into:

• financial services
• developer platforms
• enterprise solutions
• identity and verification systems

This is a change in structure, not just product expansion.

Once a company controls connectivity, expanding into adjacent services becomes a natural progression.

MTN’s reset

Recent changes at MTN Group align with the new direction. A few days ago, the company announced the appointment of five new independent non-executive directors, alongside the planned retirement of long-serving board members. The changes take effect from March 31 and are tied to its Ambition 2030 strategy.

This is part of a governance adjustment. As operations expand across markets and services, oversight structures are being strengthened to match that scale and complexity.

Board composition influences strategic direction, capital allocation and risk management. Changes at that level usually show where a company is heading.

In this case, the direction points beyond traditional telecom operations.

Airtel is focusing on a different future

Airtel Africa is taking a different approach. The company is testing satellite-to-mobile connectivity, working with low-earth orbit systems to extend coverage.

Nigeria still faces infrastructure challenges, including uneven fibre deployment and high rollout costs in rural areas.

Satellite connectivity provides a way around these limits. Coverage is no longer tied entirely to physical infrastructure such as towers and fibre routes.

If scaled, this approach could change how network expansion is done, particularly in underserved areas.

The fintech convergence is inevitable

Telecom operators already have:

• large, verified user bases
• frequent customer interaction through airtime and data
• wide physical and digital distribution

These factors support expansion into:

• payments
• wallets
• remittance services
• credit products

This brings them into direct competition with fintech firms, with the difference lying in the starting point.

Startups build products and then acquire users. Telcos already have users and are building services around them.

The result of this overlap is still unfolding, but the direction is too simple not to understand.

Data flows, and telcos sit at the centre

Nigeria’s digital activity is growing really fast. Monthly data consumption has crossed 1.3 million terabytes, driven by streaming, social media and financial services.

All of that traffic runs through telecom networks.

Operators influence:

• connection speed
• pricing
• reliability

These factors affect how digital services perform and how widely they are adopted.

This places telecom companies in a foremost position within the digital economy.

There is Growth, but access is still uneven

Infrastructure investment is increasing even as the network keeps expanding, with more sites, wider fibre coverage and gradual 5G rollout. MTN alone invested over $1 billion in 2025, targeting wider broadband access.

However, there is still a huge gap.

Broadband penetration is just above 53%, and access is uneven across regions. Again, we can’t leave out the high expenses that limit many users.

Expansion is ongoing, but inclusion is not yet complete.

Regulation will follow power

With telecom companies expanding their role, regulatory attention is increasing.

Issues under focus include:

• data protection
• competition
• infrastructure security

Telecom networks now support financial systems, communication and economic activity at scale.

As their influence grows, so does the need for oversight.

The endgame is already visible

As it stands, telcos across Africa, in a bid to become tech platforms, are expanding into multiple layers of the digital economy.

Their roles are expanding to include:

• financial services
• cloud distribution
• identity systems
• infrastructure platforms

This places them in a position to support and influence a wide range of digital services.

Startups will continue to innovate just as regulators will continue to respond.

But telecom operators will always be indispensable to how digital access is provided and scaled.

So…

Much of the conversation around Nigeria’s tech sector focuses on applications, founders and funding.

That view leaves out the underlying systems that make those services possible.

The more fundamental changes are happening in network expansion, infrastructure investment and corporate strategy.

They are less visible, but they carry long-term weight, and they are steadily changing how the digital economy operates.

The appointment brings a senior operator with long-standing ties to Indian enterprises and government into the picture. 

Ghose spent 24 years at Microsoft, where she worked across banking, healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector, before stepping down in December 2025. 

Her arrival points to Anthropic aiming beyond mass consumer reach and into large organisations that demand reliability at scale.

India is already important to Anthropic. It is the second-largest user base for Claude, with activity driven largely by work-related and technical use. 

While the audience is large, turning daily use into steady income has proved harder. Pricing pressure is tough, and competitors have leaned heavily on discounts and free access to win ground.

OpenAI has taken a similar path. In late 2025, it incorporated OpenAI India Private Limited and opened a New Delhi office, cementing India as its biggest market outside the United States. 

Earlier, it rolled out ChatGPT Go at under $5, then waived fees for a year in a bid to accelerate adoption. These have changed expectations around price and access across the market.

Appfigures data shows downloads of its Claude app in India rose 48% year on year to about 767,000 installs in September. Consumer spending jumped sharply to $195,000 for the month, yet that figure still trails far behind the $2.5 million recorded in the U.S. over the same period. Scale is there. Revenue remains the harder test.

The company has been laying the foundation well before this hire. Chief executive Dario Amodei visited India in October, meeting business leaders and lawmakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Talks also explored a possible distribution tie-up with Reliance Industries, though Reliance later chose to partner with Google to offer Gemini AI Pro free to Jio subscribers. Airtel, meanwhile, struck its own deal with Perplexity, folding premium access into mobile plans.

In India, telecom operators have become the gatekeepers. Control the network, and you control how new digital services reach hundreds of millions of people.

In a LinkedIn post announcing her move, Ghose said she would focus on working with Indian enterprises, developers and startups using Claude for “mission-critical” work. 

She described demand for “high-trust, enterprise-grade AI” and added that tools adapted to local languages could be a “force multiplier” in sectors such as education and healthcare. 

The timing also aligns with the India AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled for February 19–20 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Billed as the first global summit of its kind hosted in the Global South, it will bring together policymakers and executives from firms including Google DeepMind, Adobe and Anthropic to debate deployment, regulation and inclusion.

Despite heavy interest, India’s homegrown ecosystem is still at an early stage. The country has no shortage of software talent or users, yet few firms are building core systems at the very top end. Investment has flowed instead into applications that sit on top of existing platforms, avoiding the cost and risk of building from scratch.

Anthropic is now hiring locally, advertising roles across enterprise sales, startups and partnerships. This means it is focusing on strong local leadership, careful pricing and the right distribution allies to turn India’s surge in usage into a lasting business. 

At the centre of this challenge is Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), the digital backbone powering Nigeria’s economy, governance, and innovation ecosystem.

Consider this: Nigeria’s fiber network is undergoing massive expansion, led by the government’s Project BRIDGE, a $2 billion, 90,000 km fiber optic backbone initiative under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to achieve universal ICT access by 2025-2030, complementing existing infrastructure and increasing private sector participation for better internet access and lower costs for ISPs.

Major players like MTN (FibreX) and Airtel already offer services, with new deployments aiming to bring fiber points closer to homes, transforming the digital landscape.

But when you read headlines such as;

• Over 50,000 telecom infrastructure destruction cases reported in five years, notes the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
• Vandalism caused over 30% of network outages in 2023, reports Techeconomy.
• Operators spent ~N14.6 billion fixing damages in 2023 alone, reports Vanguard News.

They simply show that as the economy becomes more digitised, CNII is no longer a technical consideration; it is a strategic economic asset.

Digital Infrastructure as Economic Infrastructure

Nigeria’s fastest-growing sectors; fintech, telecoms, e-commerce, logistics tech, and the platform economy, are built entirely on information infrastructure.

Fibre networks, data centres, cloud platforms, payment switches, and internet exchange points form the rails on which value moves.

Any disruption to these systems, whether through vandalism, cyberattacks, or regulatory gaps, has immediate economic consequences. For a country targeting exponential GDP growth, CNII reliability directly affects productivity, investor confidence, and competitiveness.

Financial Systems and the Cost of Downtime

Digital payments and financial switching platforms now process trillions of naira annually. These systems are classified as CNII because a failure would paralyse commerce, delay wages, disrupt trade, and erode trust in the financial system.

Protecting CNII is therefore not just about security, it is about economic continuity. A $1 trillion economy requires financial infrastructure that operates at scale, with minimal downtime and strong cyber resilience.

CNII and the Scale-Up of Nigeria’s Digital Economy

Nigeria’s digital economy has been one of the most resilient growth drivers in recent years. But scaling from a growth engine to a trillion-dollar contributor requires reliable nationwide connectivity; secure data hosting and processing, and interoperable platforms across sectors.

CNII provides the framework that allows digital businesses to scale without systemic risk. Without it, growth remains fragile and uneven.

e-Governance, Revenue, and State Capacity

Beyond the private sector, CNII underpins Nigeria’s e-Governance ambitions. Digital identity systems, tax platforms, customs, land registries, and social services all rely on protected information infrastructure.

For government, CNII enables:

• Improved revenue collection
• Reduced leakages and fraud
• Faster service delivery
• Better policy data and planning

In an economy where public revenue mobilisation remains a challenge, CNII strengthens state capacity, an often overlooked but critical factor in economic expansion.

Investment Signal to Global Capital

Global investors increasingly assess digital infrastructure resilience before committing capital. Countries with clear CNII frameworks send a strong signal of regulatory maturity and long-term stability.

This matters for Nigeria’s efforts to attract hyperscale data centres, cloud service providers, fintech and digital finance investors, and digital services exporters.

CNII protection reassures investors that their assets and operations are secure from systemic disruption.

Industrialisation, AI, and the Next Growth Phase

As Nigeria moves toward smart manufacturing, agri-tech, energy tech, and AI-driven services, dependence on secure information infrastructure will deepen. Emerging technologies require low-latency networks, reliable data storage, and resilient systems.

CNII ensures that Nigeria’s next growth phase, driven by automation, data, and intelligence, rests on a stable foundation.

The Economic Cost of Infrastructure Vulnerability

Vandalised fibre cables, data centre outages, and cyber incidents already cost Nigeria billions in lost productivity annually. In a trillion-dollar economy race, such losses are not marginal, they are structural.

Strengthening CNII protections reduces economic shocks and improves national resilience, making growth more sustainable rather than episodic.

CNII as Economic Policy, Not Just Security Strategy

The key shift Nigeria must make is to treat CNII as economic policy, not merely a security or ICT issue. This requires coordination across regulators, security agencies, and the private sector to enforce CNII designation and protection, improve incident response and accountability, and align infrastructure expansion with national economic targets.

We are not ignorant of the fact that Nigeria has already issued an Executive Order on the Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), signed by President Bola Tinubu and officially gazetted in June 2024.

The order, officially titled the “Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure Order 2024,” provides a robust legal framework to safeguard essential digital systems and networks across various economic sectors.

It aims to reduce incidents of damage, disruption, or interference with critical infrastructure, which has historically been a significant problem, particularly for telecommunications (telcos) which have suffered thousands of incidents of fiber cable damage.

However, we call for closer attention toward effective implementation and enforcement. If you look at recent Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC’s) report, 19,384 fibre optic cable cuts occurred across Nigeria between January and August 2025 alone.

The Commission deserves assistance by other agencies to ensure the purpose of CIIN Executive Order was achieved.

The average weekly attack rate on infrastructure was estimated at 1,744 incidents, including approximately 1,100 fibre cuts, 545 incidents of access denial, and 99 cases of equipment theft! This is alarming! Imaging waiting up in the morning to make a call and all networks are off because the diesel generator at a base station has been stolen.

Vandals target components such as fibre optic cables (for scrap metal), batteries, solar panels, and power cables to resell in black markets.

On the other hand, developments that come in the form of road construction and other civil engineering projects also contribute to frequent damaging of underground fibre cables, a recurring problem across various states.

There are reported cases of uncooperative host communities or local youths who were involved in deliberate destruction or access denial to sites.

We believe that,

Nigeria’s $1 trillion economy ambition will be decided less by rhetoric and more by infrastructure resilience. As the economy digitises, Critical National Information Infrastructure becomes the spine of growth, enabling scale, trust, and continuity.

For policymakers, investors, and operators, the message is clear: without strong CNII, Nigeria’s economic ambitions remain exposed; with it, they become achievable.

By every global statistic, the continent is digitally switched on. But then, over 70% of its small businesses still cannot access proper finance or usable digital tools. 

We can stream, scan, tap, and swipe, but millions of founders still cannot fund growth or scale operations. That contradiction defines this moment.

Small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 95% of African businesses, generate roughly 40% of GDP, and employ over half of the workforce. The mobile sector alone already contributes more than $140 billion to sub-Saharan Africa’s economy. 

Add to this a population where over 60% are under the age of 25, and the picture becomes clear. Demand is not the problem. Infrastructure is not the problem. Leadership is the differentiator.

2026 is the year where surface-level innovation gives way to execution. The first wave of technology built rails, wallets, and connectivity. The next wave must bring credit that works, platforms that hold up under pressure, products people trust, and systems that serve the informal and formal economy equally. This work is quieter, slower, and far more difficult.

The people featured in this list are operating inside that gap. They are not reacting to growth but are organising it. Across finance, platforms, design, security, public systems, and digital services, these leaders are standing to enhance how Africa’s technology actually functions, not just how it is marketed.

These are the emerging leaders in tech to watch in 2026, because while the continent is busy counting connections, they are building results. 

In no particular order, they include:

1. Adeshina Adewumi

If Africa’s next chapter of growth will still be driven by small businesses, then the people in the background, fixing access to money deserve close attention. Adeshina Adewumi is one of them. 

We see his work as infrastructure in motion. After more than a decade across banking, asset management, and digital ventures, he now operates at the point where policy goal meets street-level execution. 

His experience at institutions like Stanbic IBTC gave him structure. His ventures gave him speed. The result is a founder who understands both the limits of traditional finance and the urgency of replacing it with something that actually works for SMEs.

At Trade Lenda, Adewumi is not just building a fintech product; he is building trust at scale. A community of over 260,000 SMEs does not grow by marketing alone. It grows because the platform solves a relatable problem, which is access to credit, insurance, and micro savings for businesses that banks routinely ignore. 

What makes this worth watching in 2026 is not the size of the network, but the model behind it. Data-driven credit decisions, mobile-first delivery, and partnerships that strengthen SME bankability rather than trap founders in debt cycles. This is why global recognition, from the Milken-Motsepe Prize in FinTech to IFC and EY awards, keeps following his work.

What elevates Adewumi into the emerging leader bracket is range. Through One Kiosk Africa, he is also tackling retail inefficiencies by connecting small merchants, supermarkets, and farmers directly to digital markets. 

Few founders operate confidently at the intersection of finance, retail technology, and trade policy. Fewer still sit on international trade bodies while building tools for market women and shop owners. 

He believes that Africa’s sustainability will be funded by structured, inclusive financing that allows MSMEs to grow on their own terms. By 2026, that philosophy may well impact how financial inclusion is measured across the continent.

2. Joshua Esiebo

That next chapter we talk about in Africa’s tech growth will not be driven only by startups. It will also be built inside large institutions that are reinventing themselves. Joshua Esiebo sits at that critical junction. 

At MTN, Africa’s largest telecoms group, his work as a senior manager in platforms management directly influences how millions experience digital services every day. His role is not limited to products, but more about direction, guiding a telecom giant away from pure connectivity and into a fully formed digital ecosystem.

Across Ayoba, MyMTN eMarketplace, MTN Play, and premium content platforms, Esiebo operates where technology, partnerships, and customer experience overlap. Platforms fail or scale based on governance, integration, and usability, so, you can tell how important his work is.

His focus on platform thinking, bringing content, payments, gaming, and data into coherent systems, is exactly what MTN needs as it executes its Ambition 2025 strategy and looks beyond it. By 2026, the success of MTN’s digital services will depend heavily on how well these platforms work together, not just how many users they attract.

What makes Esiebo one of the emerging leaders in tech to watch in 2026 is his ecosystem mindset. He builds with partners, not around them. OTT providers, fintech players, content creators, and startups all plug into systems designed for scale and reliability. 

Importantly, his work prioritises accessibility, ensuring platforms serve both urban and rural users without friction. This customer-first discipline is usually talked about and rarely enforced. As MTN strengthens its drive into fintech and digital lifestyle services, Esiebo represents a new class of African tech leader, platform-driven, partnership-led, and quietly influential.

3. Emmanuel Olorundare

Great technology fails without good design. Emmanuel Olorundare has built a career proving the opposite. When design is done right, products travel, scale, and stay resilient. 

A senior product designer, creative technologist, and startup co-founder, his work already spans Europe, Africa, the UK, and now North America.

He has built digital products that do not just scale geographically, but culturally. His influence is heavy on how complex systems are turned into simple, usable experiences that millions rely on daily.

As Co-founder of Gupta, supporting over 3,000 businesses globally, Olorundare operates at the sharp end of product execution. His fingerprints are also on platforms like AfriPay, which simplifies international payments for African students and migrants, and ShipAfrica, now active in over 200 countries. 

These are not design exercises but operational products solving payment friction, logistics complexity, and trust gaps across borders. Add to this Jami, a UK-based social platform focused on worthy connections, and we see a pattern;  Olorundare builds products where human behaviour, technology, and scale collide.

What places him among emerging leaders in tech to watch in 2026 is depth. His experience spans fintech, logistics, edtech, civic platforms, and AI-powered applications, yet his approach remains grounded in human-centred thinking. 

Beyond delivery, he is building future talent through mentorship across more than ten countries and UK-certified design education programmes. With an engineering-informed mindset and a designer’s instinct, he brings clarity to chaos and momentum to ideas. 

Design leadership is the difference between products people tolerate and products they trust. Emmanuel Olorundare understands this better than most.

4. Ogechi Okwechime

Some leaders build products. Others build markets. Ogechi Okwechime does both, and that is why she belongs on any serious watchlist for 2026. With more than fifteen years across banking and fintech, she has mastered the hard part of innovation in Africa, which is turning complex infrastructure into something businesses can actually use. 

At Interswitch, as Divisional Head of Growth Marketing for Enterprise Solutions, she operates behind the scenes of systems backing payments, preventing fraud, and keeping commerce moving at scale.

What makes her unique is her ability to turn technical depth into commercial momentum. When Verve needed to move beyond national relevance, Okwechime helped drive the strategy that transformed it into a truly African card scheme, active in over 22 countries. 

This was not expansion for clout. It was functional growth. Cards that worked across borders. Users who could shop on international platforms. Local consumers plugged into the global digital economy without friction. That alone changed how African payments are perceived.

Her record before Interswitch holds the same depth. At Access Bank, she helped launch digital loan products that reached over 50,000 borrowers. At Fidelity Bank, she scaled Instant Banking from nothing to more than 600,000 users. These are adoption numbers that reflect trust.

By 2026, as enterprise fintech solutions become more urgent to Africa’s economic plumbing, leaders like Okwechime, who combine product-led growth with disciplined execution, will define who wins and who fades.

5. Wallace Omobhude

Africa’s digital sustainability will be determined by how well large platforms understand entertainment, data, and youth culture. Wallace Omobhude is already deep in that work. 

At MTN Nigeria, he leads strategy for digital services with a focus on video and gaming, two verticals that sit at the centre of attention, engagement, and new revenue models. This is where telecoms stop selling data and start owning digital experiences.

Omobhude operates at a difficult confluence of product teams, marketing, regulators, and external content partners all pulling in different directions. His strength lies in alignment. OTT partnerships, VAS integrations, and regulatory compliance are handled with the same discipline as go-to-market execution. 

The result is platforms that scale without disorder. His work feeds directly into MTN’s diversification strategy, opening up entertainment-led revenue streams in a market where youth demographics are impossible to ignore.

Why watch him in 2026? Because MTN’s next phase depends on leaders who understand ecosystems. Omobhude’s data-driven approach, combined with sharp consumer insight, positions MTN to capture value far beyond connectivity. 

Gaming, video, and digital content are not side projects anymore. They are core to how Africa’s largest telecom stays relevant. Leaders who can build and govern these platforms will impact the industry’s direction. Wallace is already doing that work.

6. Nnaemeka Ani

Every tech ecosystem needs builders who think beyond products and into purpose. Nnaemeka Ani is one of those rare figures. He does not go after trends. He dismantles problems to their core and rebuilds from first principles. 

As Founder of MGX Research Centre and MexyGabriel Tech Company, Ani operates across research, infrastructure, policy, and execution, a combination that gives his work unusual depth and national relevance.

MGX Research is not a think tank for theory’s sake. It is a working laboratory focused on deployable systems across data science, cybersecurity, digital identity, smart cities, education, health, robotics, and automation. 

Ani believes that Africa’s growth will not come from borrowed solutions, but from systems designed for local realities and owned locally. This philosophy drives his push for digital sovereignty and African-built data infrastructure, turning code into both social and commercial value.

His influence expands into governance. As Special Adviser on ICT to the Enugu State Governor, Ani is proving that technology and public policy do not have to operate in parallel worlds. His work in Enugu shows what happens when political will meets technical clarity, resulting in better services, smarter systems, and a functional digital ecosystem. 

With Nigeria approaching major milestones in broadband expansion and tax reform in 2026, Ani represents a new kind of leader, part technologist, part reformer, fully invested in nation-building. He is one of the emerging leaders in tech to watch in 2026 not because he speaks loudly, but because his work changes structures.

7. Abraham Oghenero Efemena

Scale is usually discussed loosely in tech. Abraham Oghenero Efemena treats it as discipline. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Apex Web Network Limited who has built a fintech platform operating across Africa and key European markets, with a focus on structure, resilience, and growth.

His leadership style is more operational than performative. Systems first. Expansion second. Noise last.

Reaching 300,000 active users in 2025 is not a small win. It shows product trust across borders, regulatory environments, and user behaviour patterns. That kind of traction only happens when infrastructure works quietly and consistently. 

Efemena oversees every moving part of Apex Web Network, ensuring teams, technology, and market strategy move in sync. This hands-on leadership is essential in fintech, where failure usually comes from weak internal alignment rather than bad ideas.

Why is he among the emerging leaders in tech to watch in 2026? Because the next phase goes beyond surviving to controlled expansion. As Apex Web Network grows its user base and deepens its footprint, Efemena is building the company to compete in markets where compliance, security, and user experience determine winners. He represents a class of founders building for longevity.

8. Victor Daniyan

Payments are the bloodstream of any digital economy. Victor Daniyan understands this, and he is rebuilding how that system works across Africa. 

The CEO and Founder of Nearpays is pushing payment acceptance away from hardware-heavy models and into scalable, software-led infrastructure. We could call his work foundational, because when payments become easier, entire ecosystems are opened.

Nearpays has received recognition from EY, TechCabal, BusinessDay, and global platforms such as GITEX and the UN AI for Good Innovation Factory. The startup is empowering over 50,000 users through contactless and Soft POS solutions. 

Daniyan’s leadership sits on applied innovation and real-world adoption, proving that inclusion works best when technology fades into the background.

Looking forward to 2026, the company is entering its scale phase, with expansion in Nigeria and Ghana, stronger collaboration with Visa, and a focus on usability. Victor Daniyan stands among emerging leaders in tech to watch in 2026 because he is not just building a fintech product, but changing how businesses participate in the digital economy. That impact will only grow.

9. Peter Ndukwo

Every digital system is only as strong as the people testing its limits. Peter Ndukwo lives at that edge. As a Web3 Security Researcher and Smart Contract Auditor, his work protects some of the most valuable and complex decentralised systems in the world. When security fails, innovation collapses.

His record speaks; Audits on Chainlink, ZetaChain, and Brevis Pico. Multiple high-severity vulnerabilities discovered solo. Over 30 competitive audit wins across Sherlock and Code4rena. These are not academic exercises, they secure billions in value and protect users. 

Beyond these, his work at Zippel Labs places him inside zero-knowledge systems and cryptographic research driving the next generation of blockchain infrastructure.

Why he is placed among emerging tech leaders to watch in 2026 is not far-fetched. With decentralised systems becoming more complex, the cost of failure increases. Ndukwo is securing protocols and also mentoring African security researchers, as well as building tools to automate vulnerability discovery. 

He represents a system where Africa goes beyond using just decentralised systems to actively safeguarding and enhancing them.

10. Oluwatomi Alagbe

Security leadership today demands more than defence. It demands foresight. Oluwatomi Alagbe, one of the emerging tech leaders to watch in 2026, brings that perspective. Based in Tallinn and working at the convergence of cybersecurity, crypto, and advanced research systems, his career shows depth rather than drift. His strength is seen in how he turns complex risk into systems people can actually trust.

From protecting users at Malwarebytes to contributing to Caesar’s deep research platform, Alagbe’s work centres on resilience. He does not chase threats reactively; he builds frameworks that anticipate them. 

His experience across AI-driven systems and crypto environments gives him a rare interdisciplinary view, one that is becoming more important as boundaries between sectors blur.

What makes 2026 pivotal is what he is building next. Razzle, an AI-native communication platform, challenges how teams collaborate by placing intelligent systems at the core, not the edges. 

Alongside this, his continued work at Caesar focuses on reliability and real-world applicability, not abstraction. Alagbe is unique because he understands that trust is the currency of the next digital era, and security is how that trust is earned.

While these businesses acknowledge the downside of sticking with legacy infrastructure, they are often fearful (and rightly so) of the complexity, cost, and potential disruption that can come with upgrading their existing tech.

This is particularly true for Business Support Systems (BSS). A BSS manages critical revenue-related functions, from billing and revenue management to CRM and order fulfilment, and forms the backbone of how telcos interact with customers.

Telcos are often tentative about a BSS overhaul because they’ve already made significant investments in legacy technology and can’t justify the cost of an upgrade.

Additionally, these systems are such a key component of day-to-day operations, operators are understandably cautious about making changes to something that has traditionally worked well enough and where such a change would introduce significant operational risk.

A BSS upgrade is a significant project, something akin to a bank replacing its entire network of ATMs. It’s a project that touches every part of the business, impacts millions of customers, and requires meticulous planning and execution.

But legacy BSS platforms are typically monolithic, complex and costly to maintain, leaving telcos stuck between the risk of disruption and the need to modernise.

So, how do you know when it’s time to move to a modern BSS?

If your competitors are gaining traction with the frequent launch of new products and you’re losing market share, it might be time to modernise your BSS.

If it takes you months to update your processes in response to market or regulatory changes, and others are moving at a much faster pace, your business support systems need a refresh.

If your customer satisfaction scores are down, if you’re struggling with billing inaccuracies and high maintenance costs, modernising your BSS is the right move.

BSS migration mastery

The dilemma is clear: replacing or upgrading a system is a big step but continuing to rely on increasingly outdated technology threatens innovation, competitiveness and future growth.

For telcos wanting to replace a legacy BSS without the risk, taking a modular or phased approach is the best strategy.

Rather than upgrading everything at the same time, savvy telcos can opt to swap out specific services, whether it’s just a CRM component or invoicing component, maybe the onboarding component and then scale things up at their own pace.

With this approach, old and new systems can run in parallel, with the legacy system continuing to handle live operations, while the new system is tested and validated.

It’s also possible to run a phased customer migration, so that operators can refine processes and resolve issues before affecting their entire customer base.

While there’s no doubt that a BSS upgrade is a big project, the risks of delaying an upgrade far outweigh the challenges of migration. Especially if you migrate in stages.

When adopting a phased approach, operators can modernise with lower risk, and guaranteed continuity of service and enjoy the benefits of modern platforms – from quick product launches and better operational efficiency to improved customer experience.