From Telco to TechCo: How MTN is Enabling Uganda’s Digital Leap

When the Middle East & Africa Digital Transformation Summit opened its doors at the Kampala Serena Hotel last week, the conversations quickly moved beyond grand declarations to the practical: How do we turn bold digital ambitions into bankable partnerships and real impact?

In a room filled with policymakers, regional investors, development partners, and a who’s-who of technology leaders, MTN Uganda’s General Manager for Enterprise Business, Ibrahim Senyonga, made it clear that the stakes have changed:

“Connectivity is no longer a finish line; it is merely the runway,” he said. “Our task is to build secure, scalable, and intelligent solutions that let Uganda’s enterprises, public institutions and citizens take off in the digital economy.”

Partnering with the Government

MTN’s summit appearance was not just another industry engagement. It was a continuation of MTN Uganda’s deepening role in shaping the country’s digital trajectory.

Just weeks prior, in May, MTN co-hosted a high-level Government ICT Round Table with the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance, bringing together key players across government and the private sector. That convening resulted in a clear, shared roadmap aligned to Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the national Digital Transformation Roadmap. From that room, emerged a workplan focused on modernising service delivery, expanding broadband access, and developing digital public infrastructure that empowers both government and citizens.

Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress

What MTN is executing under the Group’s Ambition 2025 strategy is not a cosmetic rebrand. It is a deliberate, well-resourced transition from a traditional telco into a fully-fledged TechCo. The company has reorganised itself around five strategic solution pillars: Cloud & Colocation, IoT & Big Data, Cybersecurity, Unified Communications, and Platform Services. These are not abstract ideas; they are market responses.

Ugandan SMEs need virtual servers that are fast, affordable, and secure. Government MDAs require real-time platforms for citizen engagement and service delivery. Entrepreneurs are demanding smart, scalable solutions built for a mobile-first world.

As Ibrahim Senyonga emphasised, “Everything we build must lift productivity and lower barriers. That is how technology creates shared prosperity. When a farmer in Masindi can query real-time crop prices on a low-cost handset, or when a start-up in Jinja deploys machine-learning models without importing servers.” This is the practical face of transformation; where inclusion is not an afterthought but a growth strategy.

5.5G Readiness

This commitment to innovation and relevance was made even clearer when MTN Uganda conducted East Africa’s first 5.5G (5G-Advanced) showcase on 11th June 2025 at its Kampala headquarters. Delivering unprecedented speeds and ultra-low latency, the trial positioned Uganda at the forefront of next-generation connectivity. The demonstration wasn’t just about speed. It was a display of MTN’s engineering readiness. The company’s core network has been modernised, its fibre backbone upgraded to handle 400 Gbps, and its architecture redesigned to be cloud-native. When commercial licenses for 5.5G are granted, MTN will be ready to go to market almost immediately.

As part of its infrastructure upgrade, MTN Uganda, in May this year, launched its shortest and fastest fibre route, boosting network speed and introducing vital redundancy. This new link strengthens service reliability and ensures seamless connectivity for businesses, government, and future-ready technologies like 5.5G.

Tech for people

But perhaps most importantly, this infrastructure is being built with people at the centre. Through a combination of device financing models, rural connectivity investments, youth innovation hubs, and targeted digital literacy programs through the MTN Foundation, MTN is ensuring that more Ugandans are brought online and equipped to benefit from the digital economy. The company understands that every new digitally included person is not only a customer, but a potential innovator, employer, or change-maker.

This people-first approach was evident across the summit, especially during the Africa Youth Innovation Challenge, where students from across the continent showcased health-tech, agri-tech, and fintech innovations, many of them powered by platforms and connectivity provided by MTN.

“Our network is becoming a canvas for local ingenuity,” Senyonga noted. “We are not just enabling services; we are co-creating solutions.”

Uganda’s Digital Transformation Roadmap envisions a future where digital tools drive economic productivity, efficiency in government, and inclusion across sectors.

With over US $300 million committed to network expansion and technology upgrades between 2020 and 2025, MTN is aligning its investments to meet national goals.

Strategic Partnerships for the win

As Senyonga concluded, “Building the digital state requires spectrum policy, data protection laws, last-mile power, and affordable devices, none of which any single actor controls. Uganda’s digital decade is already under construction, and MTN is on-site for the long haul.”

Uganda’s transformation journey has begun. The transformation is real. And MTN is proving that with the right partnerships, Uganda’s digital potential is not just possible. It is inevitable.