Ralph Mupita, president,MTN Group, has announced plans to reduce its shareholding in MTN Nigeria through a public offer after it returns to profitability.

The group aims to cut its stake from 76 percent to 65 percent in line with its longstanding commitment to deepen local ownership, according to ITWeb, South African tech publication.

Mupita, who disclosed the plan during an editors’ roundtable meeting this week, said “The only localisation we have as MTN Group is we have potentially a sell-down in Nigeria at some point in time, approximately 11 percent. This is something we have said long ago, that over time, we would want more Nigerians owning the company, and we are prepared to sell down to 65 percent. We are at around 76 percent,” he said.

The anticipated offer would mark MTN’s second major retail public offering in Nigeria, following its 2021 sale of 575 million MTN Nigeria shares to local investors.

That offer was oversubscribed, resulting in the allocation of 661.25 million shares, including a 15 percent greenshoe option. This reduced MTN’s stake in its Nigerian unit to 75.6 percent from 78.8 percent.

More than 126,000 investors participated in that round, including retail and institutional investors such as Nigerian pension funds, representing approximately 6.5 million contributors.

At the time in 2022, MTN Group announced plans to further reduce its stake to approximately 65 percent from 75.6 percent.

Mupita confirmed that the Group would only proceed with a new offer once MTN Nigeria resolves its negative equity position and resumes dividend payments.

Currently, MTN Nigeria’s shares are trading at N235 per share.

Despite reporting a revenue of N3.36 trillion in 2024, a 36.03 percent bump from N2.47 trillion in 2023, it posted a loss after tax of N400.44 billion, a 192.25 percent rise from N137.02 billion in 2023.,

This negative performance was driven by macroeconomic headwinds, including record inflation and a steep devaluation of the naira, which raised operating costs and wiped out investor value.

MTN Nigeria has fallen behind MTN South Africa as MTN Group’s largest revenue contributor.

However, the Group is projecting a rebound in 2025, citing key drivers such as recent tariff adjustments, operational restructuring, and improving macroeconomic indicators in Nigeria.

Speaking at the roundtable, Mupita highlighted that the Group is anticipating a V-shaped recovery in Nigeria’s service revenue. He pointed to the recent structural reforms, such as the removal of fuel subsidies, the naira stabilisation, and improved dollar availability.

“The continued normalisation of these factors, particularly naira stability, should have positive impacts on consumer spending power and our business operations,” Mupita noted in the Group’s financial statement for 2024 recently.

Today’s software ecosystem is moving fast, building quality digital products has never been more crucial and more complex. As teams accelerate release cycles using a blend of manual and automated testing, one persistent issue remains: test management is fragmented.

That’s the problem TestPod, a newly launched test management platform from the team behind Scandium, is built to solve.

TestPod officially launched on Friday, April 11, 2025, offering software teams (whether in Africa or anywhere else) a much-needed solution to centralize and track their testing processes across platforms and test types. Whether it’s manual, automated, exploratory, accessibility, performance, or regression testing, TestPod brings visibility, structure, and speed to fragmented QA workflows.

“We spoke to over 200 teams at different African startups and enterprises, and despite having some automation in place, at least 90% are still heavily reliant on manual testing, just like their global counterparts,” said AbdulAzeez Ogunjobi, CEO and Co-Founder of Scandium Systems.

He explains that while Scandium’s AI-powered no-code automation suite is already being used across web, mobile, and API products globally, TestPod addresses a more foundational gap: organizing and managing all forms of testing—not just automation.

“Furthering our mission to help teams build bug-free digital products, we’re launching TestPod to help them organize their software testing operations, regardless of what kind of testing they need to do,” he added.

The timing is critical. According to the World Quality Report 2024–25, 68% of organizations are exploring Generative AI in their QA workflows, but most still lack clarity on what tests are running, what’s failing, and how test coverage aligns with ongoing releases.

Meanwhile, Africa’s digital economy is booming. A recent McKinsey report estimates it could contribute over $712 billion to continental GDP by 2025. The continent now holds more than 1.1 billion registered mobile money accounts, and in 2023 alone, over $1 trillion in transactions were processed across Instant Payment Systems, according to AfricaNenda. Regulations are tightening. Quality, reliability, and user trust are becoming more central, as the continent churns out more tech solutions in expanding sectors.

Testing isn’t just about automation. It’s about knowing what’s working and what’s broken.” noted Sodeeq Elusoji, CTO and Co-Founder of Scandium. “The real bottleneck in testing isn’t always a lack of automation—it’s lack of visibility. You can’t improve what you can’t track, and that’s what TestPod delivers.”

Unlike traditional tools that prioritize rigid workflows, TestPod is lightweight, modern, and flexible, designed for agile teams who need to move fast. It supports test case authoring, tagging, execution tracking, and real-time dashboards.

“Testing has evolved, but the way teams manage tests hasn’t caught up. We’ve seen teams with advanced automation pipelines still tracking test outcomes in spreadsheets and Slack.” said Jafar Alabi, Vice President of Products and Business Development at Scandium.

While it integrates seamlessly with Scandium’s no-code test automation suite, TestPod is framework-agnostic, making it a perfect fit for teams using Selenium, Playwright, Cypress or other custom test stacks.

Backed by a proven team with success building Africa’s first no-code test automation platform, Scandium has already achieved 6-figure ARR and powers test automation across 120+ organizations in 15+ countries. With TestPod, they’re expanding that impact even further—from test execution to test orchestration.

TestPod is now available at testpod.io. Early access is open globally and free for teams of all sizes.

As Africa’s tech scene continues to accelerate—with fintech, health tech, and mobility leading the charge, TestPod is built to ensure these innovations are not just fast but flawless.

Bolt, the leading ride-hailing platform in Africa, is reimagining what urban spaces can be with the launch of its “Playtivism” campaign in Lagos.

As part of this global initiative, Bolt is transforming a traditional parking lot into a “Chess Park”, a vibrant, people-first space where Lagosians of all ages can gather, play chess, and foster stronger community ties.

Playtivism is a call to playful, people-centered urban design. It is about giving cities back to the people by repurposing car-dominated spaces into areas that promote health, connection, and joy.

The campaign is inspired by over 81,000 submissions received during Bolt’s Rewind2023 campaign, where users shared ideas on how to make cities more liveable.

In Lagos, this vision takes shape through the Chess Park activation at Ikeja City Mall, taking place from April 9 to 13, a unique urban intervention that prioritizes people over cars.

The initiative is aimed at creating a new kind of meeting point, one where elders and youth can connect over chess, building bridges across generations and sparking meaningful community engagement.

The park will feature daily “teach-and-play” sessions hosted by two professional chess experts, as well as exciting activities including cash prizes for participants and other classic games like Ludo and more, open to anyone interested in learning or improving their skills.

As part of the activation, the renowned non-profit organization Chess In Slums will be participating on April 11, further reinforcing the park’s mission to empower and unite through play.

This initiative is part of a broader global effort, with a similar Urban Playground activation that was run in Lisbon, all under the Playtivism umbrella.

Bolt is turning the idea of mobility into more than just movement, it’s about rethinking how we use our shared spaces.

Speaking on the initiative, Osi Oguah, General Manager for Bolt Nigeria said: “At Bolt, we believe that cities become more fun, inclusive, and healthy when we design them for people, not just for cars and through Playtivism, we’re showing that small changes like turning a parking lot into a chess park can have a big impact on how communities interact and thrive.

“And next time you need to drive somewhere, think about riding instead. It’s better for your wallet, and better for your city. Riding is the new driving”, Osi said.