MTN Nigeria leads AI rollout as 13 bots replace 200 SIM registration workers

MTN Nigeria has emerged as a key testing ground for MTN Group’s ambitious Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy, with the telecom giant revealing that 13 AI-powered agents have replaced more than 200 workers previously involved in manually processing SIM registration records.

The development forms part of MTN Group’s broader plan to generate R30 billion in value from AI over the next three to five years by improving operational efficiency, growing revenues and building new digital infrastructure businesses across Africa.

Speaking during MTN Group’s Capital Markets Day, Charles Molapisi, the company’s chief technology and information officer, said Nigeria has become one of the most advanced markets in the group’s AI deployment programme.

According to Molapisi, the SIM registration process in Nigeria previously required over 200 employees to manually verify customer records by matching biometric information with data stored in national databases. The process was time-consuming and vulnerable to human errors.

However, MTN has now deployed 13 AI agents powered by computer vision technology to perform most of the verification work autonomously.

“The AI agents are processing registrations faster and more accurately than manual systems, while maintaining governance and human oversight mechanisms,” Molapisi said.

The success recorded in Nigeria has encouraged MTN to begin expanding the solution to other African markets, including Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana and Zambia.

The move highlights how AI is increasingly reshaping operations within Africa’s largest telecommunications group, particularly in areas where large-scale customer management and regulatory compliance are critical.

Beyond SIM registration, MTN is embedding AI into several core business functions as it seeks to reduce costs and improve service delivery.

The company disclosed that network and IT operations account for about 55 percent of its operating expenses and nearly 80 percent of capital expenditure, making efficiency gains in these areas a major priority.

As part of its AI transformation programme, MTN has introduced systems that optimise energy consumption at base stations, automate network fault management, detect fibre cuts before service disruptions occur and improve decisions on where to deploy network infrastructure.

The operator is also using AI-powered revenue assurance tools capable of analysing more than 10,000 data points across billions of daily transactions to identify anomalies that would be difficult for humans to detect.

Nigeria’s role in the AI rollout extends beyond operational automation. The country is also among six markets where MTN’s AI-driven customer engagement platform, known as NBx 2.0, has been deployed.

The platform uses customer data and behavioural insights to deliver highly personalised offers and recommendations. It currently serves about 44 million customers across Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda and Zambia.

MTN has also rolled out Telco GPT, an AI assistant designed to support customer service operations and call centre agents, while its conversational platform, Zigi, now supports both text and voice interactions in local languages.

The company’s AI strategy is structured around three pillars. The first, known as AI Inside, focuses on using AI to improve internal operations. The second, AI for B2C, aims to enhance customer experiences and boost sales. The third, AI for B2B, targets enterprise customers through services such as GPU computing, edge computing and AI infrastructure.

While MTN sees significant opportunities in commercial AI services, the group said it is prioritising internal efficiency projects because they deliver the quickest and most predictable returns.

“We will prioritise AI Inside, but we are executing B2C and B2B. We are just a little more nuanced in terms of timing and capital allocation,” Molapisi said.

The company has set a target that by 2028, about 80 percent of AI’s financial impact in its six largest markets will come from internal operational improvements.

For Nigeria, the replacement of manual SIM verification processes with AI agents signals the beginning of a broader transformation that could reshape how telecommunications services are delivered, regulated and managed across the continent.

As competition intensifies and operators face rising network, energy and compliance costs, MTN is betting that artificial intelligence will become one of its most powerful tools for improving efficiency and sustaining growth in Africa’s increasingly digital economy.