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Global funds are pivoting to capture the artificial intelligence (AI) craze, with investors predicting that booming technology spending will drive returns for years to come.
Nigeria, like most developing countries, is pretty much a spectator in the AI race for now, however some cutting edge companies trading on the NGX are already positioning to be AI first movers in the country.
AI companies’ valuations have soared from the developed markets Magnificent Seven to Emerging markets, stocks with AI exposure have been rewarded by investors with higher valuations and are the biggest contributors to the rally in the S&P 500 stocks index this year.
While much of the AI investment frenzy has focused on a handful of American firms, Frontier Markets companies like Nigeria that can harness the technology are set to benefit.
Emerging-market stocks that are highly exposed to AI have even outperformed the so-called Magnificent Seven mega cap tech firms (composed of Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Amazon, Meta and Tesla), so far this year, according to equities strategists at Citigroup in a recent note.
In Nigeria, there are signs that the momentum is just beginning as AI adoption accelerates across segments including cloud computing and banking services.
MoneyCentral scanned the financial statements of major Nigerian firms listed on the NGX to see actual mentions of AI by corporate executives and how they are deploying the technology to improve their services and earnings.
The top three firms are listed below.
MTN Nigeria (Share Price N420/ share)
MTN Nigeria is a $5.8 billion (N8.8 trillion), Lagos Nigeria (NGX) listed company that is a subsidiary of Africa’s largest telecommunications firm, MTN Group.
MTN Nigeria is the largest contributor to the MTN Group Ltd revenues, according to data from Half Year, 2025 financials.
Group Service Revenue from the Nigerian business, which reported a loss in the first half of 2024, jumped 37.5% to 28.2 billion rand ($1.6 billion) in the six months to June 30, while sales at its South African unit rose 2.3% to 21.6 billion rand ($1.22 billion).
MTN is well positioned to deliver AI services to Nigeria’s 230 million people, the largest in Africa.
MTN Nigeria has launched the first phase of its US$240 million artificial intelligence (AI), Tier 3 Data Centre as part of a strategy to expand capacity and meet the growing demand for its services.
“This multi-stage data centre project is a world-class facility that will become the largest of its kind in West Africa. It will deliver industry-leading standards of scalability, reliability and security. It will enable businesses to digitise operations, drive innovation and scale efficiently,” MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola said in statements accompanying its Half Year 2025 earnings report.
The 9MW data centre is being developed in two phases, with the first phase being the 4.5MW Tier 3 facility valued at US$120 million, that was just launched.
Toriola, emphasised the importance of this centre in advancing artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and enterprise solutions.
Toriola also highlighted the centre’s pay-as-you-use model, with services priced in naira, as a significant benefit for companies aiming to reduce costs and navigate foreign exchange challenges.
Lynda Saint-Nwafor, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, noted that the first phase required a US$100 million investment in infrastructure, with an additional US$20 million allocated for cloud integration.
She pointed out that the centre’s competitive pricing provides a viable alternative to major hyperscalers, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, making advanced computing more accessible to Nigerian businesses.
The facility in Nigeria is part of MTN’s broader initiative under its newly created unit, Genova, designed to monetize infrastructure, expand third-party access, and deepen innovation. With more than 89 million subscribers in Nigeria alone, MTN sees the local market as a crucial hub for AI adoption.
MTN is a leader in Nigeria in terms of high quality capital expenditure.
MTN Nigeria spent a total of N565.70 billion ($376 million) in capital expenditure (CapEx) in the first six months of 2025, which is 288.40 percent higher than 2024’s total.
The largest Nigerian telecommunications provider reported a profit after tax (PAT) of N414.9 billion in the first six months (H1) of 2025, marking a strong recovery from the loss after tax of N519.1 billion recorded in the prior H1 2024 period.
Revenue for MTN Nigeria was up 54.50 percent to N2.37 trillion ($1.6 billion) in the period under review from N1.53 trillion the previous year.
Data revenue rose by 69.2 percent, supported by active user base growth, higher data traffic and price adjustments. Underpinning this growth is the ongoing investment in network capacity to accommodate increased traffic and enhance user experience, as well as higher smartphone penetration.
The company added approximately 3.7 million smartphones to the network in the second half of the year (HI), raising smartphone penetration to 62.6 percent, up 4.3pp from December 2024. 4G population coverage remained stable at 82.4 percent.
MTN Nigeria stock trades at a Price to Earnings (P/E) Ratio of 16.5, with AI yet to be baked into its valuation it looks cheap at these levels, even as the stock is up 120 percent in the past year.
United Bank for Africa, UBA (Share Price N44.90/ share)
Several leading Nigerian banks have launched AI-driven products and digital banking innovations, but the level of AI adoption and product maturity varies across institutions.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) plc is currently the undisputed leader among Nigerian Banks in AI adoption, given its comprehensive integration of AI across retail and enterprise banking services.
UBA is a NGX listed Nigerian lender with a market capitalisation of $1.2 billion (N1.84 trillion).
After scouring the information available in Nigerian Banks Full Year 2024 Annual Reports and Results Presentation, MoneyCentral created a model to rank the five largest banks—United Bank for Africa (UBA), Access Holdings, FirstHoldCo, Zenith Bank, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO)—in terms of their AI adoption.
UBA ranks first due to its proven track record of implementing a large-scale, customer-facing AI solution.
Demonstrated Implementation: UBA is the only bank to have a named, operational AI product with documented user numbers. It pioneered an AI Banking Chatbot in Africa, Leo, in 2018, which now serves over 5 million users.
Strategic Integration: The CEO’s statement explicitly identifies leveraging AI and advanced analytics as a key priority for enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency in 2025.
Leadership Focus: UBA’s leadership acknowledges that transformative technologies like AI shaped the 2024 economic environment and credits strategic investments in this area for turning uncertainties into opportunities.
Security: The Bank overhauled its Security Operations to provide the right level of 24/7 visibility into threats that may occur both within and outside the network of the Bank and strategically invested in state-of-the-art security technologies that have Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics Automation(RA) capabilities embedded.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) this year expanded Pan African trade with the integration of its LEO Artificial Integration (AI) chatbot with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) developed in partnership with the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim Bank), for end to end transaction on PAPSS with LEO via local African currencies.
UBA was the first to originate transactions out of Nigeria on PAPPS in branches, but the launch of PAPPS on UBA’s LEO is to enable a move to 24hrs transaction from nine-to-five in branches, according to Mike Ogbalu the CEO of PAPSS.
Up to 121 billion Ghana Cedi has passed through since launch in a few weeks and a lot from the Nigerian side, Ogbalu said.
“This is a confluence of convenience, cost of transaction and user adoption. We have significantly lowered the cost of payments from about $25 to about $2 in local currency,” Ogbalu said.
The Ghana Nigeria trade corridor and others like Cameroon – Chad, and Mano river corridor in West Africa are also being opened to increase Africa trade.
UBA’s gross earnings grew by 17.28% to N1.608 trillion in June 2025, from N1.371 trillion in June 2024.
Profit after tax rose by 6.06% to close the half year 2025 period at N335.53 billion.
UBA stock currently trades at a price to book ratio of 0.40, seriously undervaluing the company.
Airtel Africa (Share Price N2,310.50/ share)
Airtel Africa is a dual Lagos and London listed telecommunications firm, with a market capitalization of $5.62 billion (N8.43 trillion).
Airtel Nigeria has unveiled plans to invest US$120 million in the construction of a 38 MW hyperscale data centre in Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2026.
The operator with over 81 million subscribers says the facility is designed to cater to hyperscale cloud providers, large enterprises and small businesses.
“The moment we launch the Airtel data centre, we will run it at scale. It’s a massive investment,” Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, said during a media session in Lagos.
“Data centres are not just for cloud; they are foundational to AI. We’re preparing Nigeria for what’s next,” he added.
The executive said the facility is being engineered to deliver an IT load of 38 megawatts, with support for high-performance server racks of up to 6 kilowatts. The design will accommodate next-generation compute workloads, including GPU-powered infrastructure essential for artificial intelligence applications.
Airtel Africa said last week that more than 205 million spam SMS messages were detected by its pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered spam detection service, Spam Alert in 13 (thirteen) of its markets over the last 6 months.
Airtel Africa’s Spam Alert service uses AI to analyse and classify SMS messages as “SPAM ALERT” based on various parameters, including the sender’s usage patterns and SMS frequency in real time.
Airtel Africa Plc in its Q1’25/26 earnings, recorded a Profit After Tax (PAT) of $156.0 million (vs $31.0 million in Q1’24/25), on the back of the full quarter impact of tariff adjustments in the Nigerian Operations, relatively improving FX dynamics, recovery in observed market trends in the Francophone region, and sustained CAPEX investment that facilitated data monetization.
Airtel Africa target price has been raised by analysts at CardinalStone Partners Limited, which implies a 70% upside to the current stock price.
“We raise our Target Price to N3,906.75, up from our previous estimate of N3,635.78. This implies a potential upside of 69.1% from the current market price of N2,310.50. We maintain our BUY rating on the ticker,” analysts led by Samuel Gbadebo, said in an Aug. 20 note to clients.
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