One of South Africa’s largest telecoms has announced a massive R480 million upgrade to its cellular infrastructure across KwaZulu-Natal.

A province dealing with widespread poverty, MTN wants to increase its coverage in KwaZulu-Natal as well as reinforce its signal strength with the investment. The company has been looking to expand the reach of its mobile money products with aspirations to get devices and fintech in the hands of even the poorest South Africans.

As part of the R480 million investments, MTN says it will “modernise its network infrastructure across KwaZulu-Natal, with a strong focus on improving access in underserved areas.”

This includes the construction of 25 new infrastructure sites, the modernisation of 90 existing sites, capacity upgrades to 120 sites and transmission upgrades to more than 80 sites, with a focus on Mpofana, Weenen, Bovini, Nkapha, Nkambele, Kwantabomvu, and Lokwe

“This investment aims to extend and add more capacity and speed to MTN’s already impressive 4G coverage, which currently sits at 97 percent in the province. Rural communities and townships will be the primary beneficiaries of the 4G expansion, while metros and larger towns will gain broader access to MTN’s high-speed 5G network,” the company says in an announcement.

“The improvements are already being felt. Residents in villages like Mpendle have seen a significant boost in connectivity thanks to recent 4G rollouts, while villages such as Nongidi.”

Thami Ntuli, premier of KwaZulu-Natal was on hand as MTN announced the investment, as well as the induction of 80 young residents into its national digital skills development programme.

“KwaZulu-Natal is a key growth province for MTN, and this investment is a demonstration of our unwavering commitment to bridging the digital divide. We are ensuring that no one is left behind in South Africa’s digital revolution,” said Busi Dlamini, MTN South Africa’s General Manager for the province.

With the rollout of a R99 smartphone project aiming at reaching 1.2 million South Africans, and the continued enhancement of its MTN MoMo services fit to offer cheaper, faster and easier mobile money and fintech services to more South Africans, the last piece of the puzzle is connectivity.

This latest R480 million investment seeks to try and place that piece.

Last month MTN launched MoMo Pay, a new way that entrepreneurs can accept cash payments directly on their smartphones through the MTN MoMo app, no other device required. This allows spaza shop owners, for example, to sell products and even digital services like airtime and data, with the possibility to earn commission.

“For example, an airtime vendor will earn a commission per sale, turning every phone recharge into a recurring revenue stream,” the telecom explained at the time.

“With MoMo Pay, we’re not just digitising payments – we’re unlocking a pathway to financial dignity and scalable opportunity for every vendor, spaza shop, and street trader,” said Kagiso Mothibi, CEO of Fintech at MTN South Africa.

The most important part, however, is that MTN takes a 0.5 percent cut from each transaction. With this, the company hopes to make as much money as possible from the country’s giant informal economy.

[Image – Photo by Rémi Prévost on Unsplash]