Sunil Taldar, Group Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, is hailing Lagos, Nairobi, and Kigali as the “growth anchors” of Africa’s digital future, describing them as the cities leading the continent’s transition into a data-driven, AI-enabled economy.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Kigali 2025, Taldar says Africa’s true strength lies not only in its vast population or market potential, but in the ingenuity of its young, tech-driven innovators who are reshaping the continent’s digital landscape.
“Cities like Lagos, Nairobi, and Kigali are the growth anchors of Africa,” Taldar tells the MWC Kigali 2025 event attendees. “Data consumption is rising, and they are leading in AI adoption.”
Speaking on Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Kigali 2025, Taldar says Africa’s true strength lies not only in its vast population or market potential, but in the ingenuity of its young, tech-driven innovators who are reshaping the continent’s digital landscape.
Lagos and other urban centres represent Core Africa, Airtel Africa CEO says
According to him, these urban centres represent what Airtel Africa defines as “Core Africa” — a network of high-growth cities where smartphone penetration, digital engagement, and mobile-first services are rapidly transforming economic activity.
Taldar says the surge in data usage and AI experimentation across these cities is redefining how Africans work, transact, and access essential services. Sustaining this digital momentum, he adds, will require robust connectivity infrastructure and expanded data-centre capacity to enable cloud computing, enterprise digitisation, and content localisation across the continent.
He notes that Airtel Africa is responding to this need by investing in large-scale data-centre hubs to support both consumers and enterprises, marking a strategic shift in the company’s business model.
“We are making a shift from sellers of bandwidth to digital infrastructure providers — offering co-location, edge hosting, and cloud services as part of our unified model,” Taldar explains.
The Airtel Africa CEO says the company’s ongoing investments across key markets are designed to create a sustainable digital backbone for Africa — one that can power the continent’s next phase of economic growth.
He emphasises that Africa’s digital transformation will be anchored on collaboration among operators, technology manufacturers, regulators, and investors to accelerate innovation and digital inclusion.
Taldar says that Africa’s telecoms story “is not about catching up, but about leapfrogging,” adding that with the right policy environment, the continent’s emerging digital cities could drive “the world’s next great digital story — the last silicon growth frontier.”
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