By Chinenye Anuforo
MTN Nigeria has said it is making plans to become a technology company by 2025 rather than a telecom company. The Chief Information Officer, MTN Nigeria, Shodunke Shoyinka, stated this during the 2022 Texcellence conference themed; ‘‘Championing a Forward thinking Africa’,’ which was organized by CWG in Lagos at the weekend.
She stated that the company’s MoMo PSB is a completely different entity from MTN Nigeria, adding that due to the trend of companies transitioning into holding structures, the company is looking at doing the same thing.
“I think MTN just like any other telco company of today, you will see every one of them looking at a transition into a tech company. So we are transitioning from a telco that we are today into a tech holding company. We have drawn up a very audacious ambition for ourselves which we call the ambition 2025. By 2025, we want to see ourselves as a proper technology company, rather than the telco company that we are today”, he said.
Now that goes into a lot of things that we need to change for ourselve. From our governance, processes, from technology, from our culture, down to even KPIs”.
He noted that the governance of traditional telco companies is quite monollytic but quite different for technological companies. “When you look at the technology companies, the data is driven all the way down to the frontline. When you look at the set of technologies that are employed, in terms of technology, they tend to standardize on the telcos. But when you look at the technology companies, again, they scan for new technologies and they enable these teams using AI, using robotics, the KPIs and you know that the KPIs for the telcos are quite punitive.
‘‘But for the tech holding companies, there is mobility, they have to be innovative all the time. And we have had to step back in looking at this ambition and look across all these things that we need to change”, he explained. The CIO further stated that the company is structured in the tribes while adding that it speaks to different business verticals and underpinning the feeling that it is the sort of culture that will lead to change.
“But it is a long journey, a journey in which one has to embrace agility. Agility is the key to how we are going to be structured and how we have to survive to be a technology company. Therefore, for a technology company, it is more about platforms. It is an outcome. There will always be something different that has to come out of what you provide, unlike a telco where it is pretty much standardized”, Shoyinka said.