Telecommunications giant MTN Group and the government of Ghana have signed a landmark agreement that will equip young Ghanaians with artificial intelligence (AI), coding and digital skills.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed by Ghanaian Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation Samuel Nartey George and MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, supports Ghana’s flagship ‘One-Million Coders Programme’ to help develop skills to drive the country’s digital transformation.

The two parties will explore areas for collaboration on the flagship initiative of the new administration of President John Mahama.

“We engaged with the MTN Group and expressed our desire for a partnership that will lead to fuel the capacity of young Ghanaians in the area of AI, digital technology, data governance and cybersecurity,” George says, highlighting the significant investments made by MTN Ghana in the country.

“The MTN building, donated to the government of Ghana, will become one of our centres for excellence for artificial intelligence and software development. We are committed to backing MTN in this endeavour,” he says.

“We are very focused on understanding the strategy Ghana has and how we as MTN Group and MTN Ghana can support it,” Mupita says, adding that Ghana’s government is creating an enabling environment for MTN to continue its work to support the building of the digital ecosystem that will be a catalyst for growth and expansion and meet the socioeconomic objectives of the Ghanaian government.

“We must develop our own talent on the African continent. We must develop our own software engineers and we must be doing more around coding to enable us to all be future fit.”

Mupita says that, with about 3 000 languages spoken across Africa, it is incumbent on Africans to ensure that they work on their own large language models to develop the solutions made possible by generative AI.

“Between MTN and Ghana, we will partner using common projects to advance the cause of African development,” adds MTN Group markets senior VP Ebenezer Asante.

The MoU follows the introduction in 2023 of the MTN Skills Academy in multiple MTN operating countries, including Ghana.

The MTN Skills Academy aims to provide access to digital and financial skills training across the continent.