MTN Nigeria Communication Plc said it paid the sum of N543.9 billion in taxes and levies to the Nigerian government in 2023.

The company disclosed this in its 2023 sustainability report released over the weekend, which highlights its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. In addition, MTN said it was able to expand its network coverage to cover 92.9% of the country’s landscape.

According to nairametrics.com, the technology company added that it also increased its investment in capital expenditure by 13.2% to N571 billion in 2023.

Per the company’s financial result, MTN Nigeria posted N2.46 trillion as revenue for the full year 2023. However, it recorded a loss after tax of N137 billion driven by net forex losses.

In a filing with the NGX, Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN, said the company’s Sustainability Report, highlights the company’s commitment to creating shared value for all its stakeholders.

“We are proud of the progress we have made so far, expanding connectivity to 79.7 million people, achieving 92.9 percent nationwide coverage, and investing N2.6 billion in corporate social investment programs that have impacted over 58,000 lives through the MTN Foundation, contributing N549.3 billion in taxes and levies to the government and investing N571.0 billion in capex, up 13.2% in 2023” Toriola stated.

Toriola added that MTN’s sustainability strategy revolves around four principles of eco-responsibility, sustainable societies, sound governance, and economic value-added.

According to him, MTN’s 4G coverage grew by 2.4 percentage point from 79.1% in 2022 to 81.5% in 2023, while 5G coverage grew by 8.1 percentage points from 3.2% in 2022 to 11.3% in 2023. With this, Toriola said the company has increased its percentage of the market share to 52.1% in 2023 from 50.8% in 2022.

“We are leading in the provision of connectivity and access to millions of Nigerians. Our efforts on financial inclusion in Nigeria have also been successful. Through our fintech business, we serve over 14.5 million customers in all the local governments across the country,” he said.

WIOCC Group, in partnership with Readland Global, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its recently held Science, Technology, engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workshop. The workshop brought together   enthusiastic students from Filerose Academy and Sammy Bright School for a day of immersive learning and hands-on experience in various STEM fields.

The workshop featured a comprehensive programme that included robotics, 3D printing and drone flying training sessions. These activities were designed to ignite the students’ interest in STEM and provide them with practical skills that are essential in the 21st-century technological landscape.

The students were given the unique opportunity to develop their STEM skills through interactive sessions facilitated by professionals. The workshops were meticulously designed to be engaging and informative, ensuring that each participant could fully benefit from the experience.

In the robotics session, students learned the basics of designing, building and programming robots, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The 3D printing workshop allowed students to explore the exciting possibilities of manufacturing, enabling them to create and print their own designs.

The drone flying training introduced the participants to the principles of drone technology, including hands-on flight practice and discussions on the applications of drones in various industries.

Commenting on the event, Adesola Adesugba, Country Marketing Manager (Nigeria) at WIOCC GROUP, said, “We are thrilled to have partnered with Readland Global to organise this STEM workshop. Our goal was to inspire and equip the next generation of innovators with the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving technological world.

“The enthusiasm and creativity displayed by the students were truly inspiring. We are confident that this experience will have a lasting impact on their academic and career pursuits.”

The collaboration between WIOCC GROUP and Readland Global underscores both organisations’ commitment to fostering education and innovation in Nigeria.

By providing students with access to cutting-edge technology and expert guidance, they aim to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, preparing young minds for future challenges and opportunities.

Small, medium, or large businesses looking to explore how Generative AI (GenAI) can enhance their operations without the complexity of technical setups, can now heave a sigh of relief.

Chidera Anyanebechi, general manager, NeuRaL AI

Neural AI, a Lagos-based provider of essential support to organizations intending to build and deploy Large Language Models (LLMs), has developed and launched a composable, ready-to-use data and AI compute infrastructure called REACTOR.

Chidera Anyanebechi, the general manager of NeuRaL AI told journalists on Monday that NeuRaL AI’s REACTOR simplifies everything with no self-hosting required, no need to construct and manage complex infrastructure and no operation of machine learning pipelines, caching, or query engines.

The startup also said that with REACTOR, companies do not require management of tens to hundreds of gigabytes of data nor expensive AI engineers or operations teams necessary.

“What we have developed is assuring businesses that no expertise in data science or machine learning is needed to benefit from GenAI. AI has become a leveler for all businesses irrespective of size”, she said. “We handle all the heavy lifting for you”.

According to Anyanebechi, the comprehensive Neural AI architecture gives the user access to a dedicated “Metal Vault” within its virtual compute cluster data center (REACTOR) which includes a dedicated IP and a user-friendly interface.

“We manage everything for you, from initial setup to ongoing maintenance. We will guide you through the entire process shown in the diagram and provide training for your team on how to use the system.

“All this is available starting at just N99k per month (excluding VAT)”.

“Regardless of your industry or company size, from a team of 5 to a workforce of 5000, we can demonstrate how GenAI RAG can help your business achieve more”.

“Additionally, if your company is based in Lagos, we invite you to host us for a 1-hour GenAI adoption workshop tailored to your specific environment and use cases, completely free of charge. For companies outside Lagos, we can arrange a virtual session”, she said.

The NeuRaL AI founder added that developers and software companies who are looking to build AI apps for their customers can leverage REACTOR to host their custom model trained on their own data for the monthly fee of 99k.

“We don’t charge per token as a lot of others do which brings down the cost considerably. It’s a win-win situation”, Anyanebechi said.