MTN Group President and Chief Executive Ralph Mupita has said Africa’s long term prosperity depends less on how the continent responds to migration and more on how it expands economic opportunity and strengthens regional integration, speaking at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation’s Winter Seminar in Johannesburg.
Mupita said Africa’s future will be determined by the economic opportunities that connect its people rather than the borders that separate them, calling on governments to set predictable policy so businesses can confidently allocate capital and resources. During a panel discussion, he argued that migration should not be treated in isolation from the broader economic conditions shaping people’s lives, since people move because opportunity is unevenly distributed, and the defining question is whether mobility can be matched with genuine opportunity at home.
He said Africa’s demographic advantage will only become an economic advantage if countries invest in skills, infrastructure, finance and institutions that allow people to participate productively, describing MTN’s own growth as inseparable from the continent’s prosperity. He said digital infrastructure has become an increasingly important enabler of economic participation, connecting people not just to each other but to education, entrepreneurship and markets, framing the company’s broader mission as building bridges across the continent rather than borders.
