MTN Group's chief executive Ralph Mupita has cautioned that xenophobia and anti-migrant sentiment pose a serious threat to Africa's plans for a unified continental market. Speaking at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation Winter Seminar, he argued that companies and nations must abandon the idea of operating strictly within their own borders.
Mupita stressed that Africa's prosperity depends on allowing people, money and ideas to move freely across borders. He warned that hostility towards migrants and restrictive policies undermine the vision of regional economic integration.
"The digital economy we are fast moving to knows no borders. The future of Africa will not be determined by the borders that separate us, but by the economic opportunities that connect us," he said.
His comments arrive as African nations work to roll out the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), designed to unite 1.4 billion people in a single market worth approximately $3.4 trillion. While governments have made progress removing trade barriers, Mupita noted that the prejudices fuelled by xenophobia remain a major stumbling block.
"Migration is part of who we are," he added, pointing out that cross-border movement has long been the engine of trade, invention and capital flows on the continent.
Mupita backed his argument by pointing to MTN's own results. The company generates 80 to 82 percent of its earnings from operations outside South Africa, its home nation.
This reliance on regional markets reflects a broader trend: South African multinationals now depend heavily on growth elsewhere in Africa as the domestic economy struggles. MTN operates across 16 markets spanning Africa and the Middle East, with Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda and Cameroon among its major revenue drivers.
Corporate leaders increasingly worry that rising nationalism and anti-immigrant feeling could slow Africa's economic progress at a moment when businesses are pouring money into digital services, fintech and cross-border platforms. Unlike older industries, digital ventures need unrestricted movement of people, technology and investment rather than fixed physical infrastructure tied to borders.
"The mindset of exclusion is an outdated relic. Governments must set predictable policy and regulations.
Businesses will follow and allocate resources and capital," Mupita told the seminar, urging policymakers to establish stable frameworks that attract investment.
His comments reframe Pan-Africanism as a business imperative rather than merely a political principle. For multinational firms like MTN that earn most revenue beyond their home countries, regional stability and openness have become essential to their survival.
The intervention also exposes a risk that's rarely discussed surrounding the AfCFTA's future. Member nations have made headway in cutting tariffs and hammering out trade rules, but recurring disputes over immigration and the rights of foreign workers continue to threaten the movement of labour and entrepreneurship that economists view as vital to the pact's success.
