MTN Skills Academy reaches 350,000 learners across 11 markets

MTN Group says its Skills Academy has reached more than 350,000 learners and is now available in 11 markets, the company said in an announcement published on 15 July to mark World Youth Skills Day.

The figure covers learners reached through the platform’s network of training and ecosystem partners, which include ICT hubs, according to the company. MTN has not published a country-by-country breakdown of that total, and the announcement gives no completion or employment rate for the learners it counts.

The announcement is MTN’s own account of its programmes, published at mtn.com/creating-inclusive-pathways-to-africas-digital-economy. It sets out four country initiatives and the reasoning behind them.

What the four programmes are doing

In South Sudan, MTN has partnered with the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, the Ministry of ICT and Postal Services, and the non-profit Educare South Sudan, to launch the zero-rated Junub Academy National E-Learning Platform. The platform lets teachers and learners access approved educational content without incurring data charges. Educare South Sudan has recognised the platform for expanding access to education.

In Congo Brazzaville, MTN worked with the Giovani & Mamie Foundation and BantuHub to host GMU Tech Week 2026 in Pointe-Noire. The week-long programme drew more than 200 participants, who worked with industry experts and developed ideas aimed at their own communities.

In Côte d’Ivoire, a partnership with the National Institute for the Promotion of the Blind (INIPA) produced a Braille multimedia room equipped with adapted computers and assistive technologies, giving visually impaired students access to educational resources and a more independent way to build digital skills.

In Benin, the MTN Foundation launched the TITA Digital Skills programme in 2022 with Digital Valley and public universities. It trains students and young graduates in coding, digital entrepreneurship, content creation and innovation. MTN says the programme has trained more than 1,000 young people, with some graduates finding work in local industries and others taking up roles inside MTN Benin.

The numbers behind the push

MTN frames the investment against two figures it cites in the announcement. Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is projected to grow by around 150 million people over the next five years. Separately, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 estimates that around 40% of today’s skills are becoming outdated, and that approximately 22% of jobs are expected to change by 2030.

Nompilo Morafo, MTN Group’s Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, said the company’s responsibility extends past training. “Our responsibility is not only to equip youth with future-ready skills, but to help create pathways to employment, entrepreneurship and innovation that enable them to participate meaningfully in Africa’s digital economy,” she said in the announcement.

What the record does not yet show

The 350,000 figure is a reach number, meaning people who have been through or touched the platform. It is not a jobs number, and MTN does not present it as one. The only employment outcomes the announcement states are for Benin, where it says many of the 1,000-plus TITA graduates have secured opportunities, without giving a figure.

That gap matters for how the platform should be judged. The announcement itself sets the test: skills must lead to employment, entrepreneurship, innovation and economic participation. On its own numbers, MTN has reported progress on the first part of that and has not put a number on the second.

What the announcement does establish is scale and spread. A platform running in 11 markets, with a zero-rated service in South Sudan and an assistive-technology facility in Abidjan, is infrastructure rather than a campaign. The next set of figures worth watching is whether MTN publishes completion and placement rates alongside reach.

Source: MTN Group. Read the original item.