MTN Foundation Recognized As Benchmark For Private Sector Leadership In Healthcare

The MTN Foundation was lauded on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, as a leading model for private sector-driven healthcare impact in Nigeria.

The commendation came during the 6th edition of the Arthur Mbanefo Lecture at the University of Lagos, Akoka, where the Foundation’s strategic and sustained social investments in healthcare were spotlighted as a blueprint for inclusive healthcare development.

The lecture, themed “A Healthy Nation is a Wealthy Nation: The Role of Impact Investments and Sustainable Financing in Nigeria,” featured Dr. Tolulope Adewole, Managing Director of NSIA Advanced Medical Services Limited (MedServe), as the keynote speaker. Dr. Adewole, drawing on tangible examples, commended the MTN Foundation for its unwavering commitment to embedding sustainability and equity within its corporate social investment framework.

“MTN, through its Foundation, made a bold commitment. 1% of its profit after tax, every year, is invested in development sectors. That’s not small change,” Dr. Adewole stated during his address. “Over the years, they’ve invested ₦31.75 billion, impacting over 32 million Nigerians. But what’s most striking is that while only 25% of that fund has gone to health, healthcare accounts for 51% of all the lives reached. That’s catalytic impact.”

Dr. Adewole underscored the  strategic importance of focusing on impact based  outcomes across the healthcare value chain. He cited the Foundation’s pioneering  dialysis centre programme as a prime example, noting its profound ripple effect for patients grappling with kidney disease.

“People no longer have to die needlessly from kidney disease. MTN’s intervention has shown that impact can be measurable, sustainable, and deeply humane,” he affirmed.

The lecture further acknowledged the Foundation’s community-centric initiatives, including the Y’ello Doctor mobile medical scheme and the ‘What Can We Do Together’ (WCWDT) programme. These initiatives have been instrumental in transforming access to healthcare in underserved communities, notably leading to the revitalisation of 164 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across Nigeria, with 44 completed in 2024 alone.

MTN Foundation Executive Director, Odunayo Sanya, highlighted the dire medical crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed a few years ago as a critical threat to healthcare in Nigeria and the rest of the world. She said: “When COVID hit a few years ago, we all realised that a health emergency is not just a health emergency. It’s an economic emergency, a social emergency, and really, an existential threat to all of us.”

Speaking from first-hand experience, Sanya noted that many primary healthcare centres in remote communities still lack clean water, a necessity for any health facility to function. “Of the 52 PHCs we started remodeling in 2024, only one had water. I’m not a doctor, but I know you can’t live a good life without clean water,” she said.. The MTN Foundation has been working to bridge this gap through its healthcare interventions in underserved communities.