{"id":81297,"date":"2026-08-19T10:31:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T09:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=81297"},"modified":"2026-09-07T05:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:27:41","slug":"how-mtn-built-a-smarter-supply-chain-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2026\/08\/19\/how-mtn-built-a-smarter-supply-chain-with-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"How MTN built a smarter supply chain with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Operating across 16 African markets with 313 million subscribers demands far more than technology. It requires resilience, visibility and the ability to make decisions at speed. In this interview, Arun Kumar, Global Lead \u2013 Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Excellence at MTN, explains how Oracle Fusion Cloud and a unified data strategy helped the telecom giant standardise operations, predict supply chain risks and turn analytics into a strategic advantage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN operates across 16 African markets, each with different regulatory and operational requirements. How did you create a unified digital backbone while balancing global standardisation with local compliance?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a challenging transformation, but I had the advantage of joining when the business unit was just being established. We were centralising procurement, supply chain, tax and several other functions, so it was effectively a blank canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming from a digital transformation and ERP implementation background, I knew the first priority wasn’t technology, but process. Vendors often talk about “best practice”, but in many cases that’s simply a way of masking missing functionality. We wanted technology that supported our business rather than forcing us to change it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2012, we implemented one of our first cloud sourcing and supply chain platforms, then IBM Emptoris, now SAP Ariba. That project established a blueprint that shaped everything that followed. Operating across 16 African countries meant dealing with different regulations, varying levels of connectivity and unique business processes. Rather than optimise for product features, we focused on process compliance, simplicity and ease of adoption. With high staff turnover in many markets, the platform had to be intuitive and easy to train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN had also grown through acquisitions, leaving us with multiple back-office systems. Replacing every ERP wasn’t practical, so we focused on creating a single operating model that could sit across them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before Oracle Fusion Cloud, we already operated as a global sourcing and supply chain organisation. Around 2018 and 2019, when we evaluated Oracle, we were clear that if the functionality didn’t meet our requirements, we wouldn’t compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oracle’s response impressed us. Rather than insisting we adapt our processes, they invited us to their headquarters to explain our end-to-end business operations. Instead of trying to build everything, we focused on the critical functionality, and Oracle delivered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our guiding principles was to minimise customisation. We followed a group-led, locally compliant model. The global blueprint remained consistent while local regulatory requirements were accommodated where necessary. Once agreed, every market followed the same standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once that foundation was in place, how did you continue evolving the platform to improve visibility, supplier collaboration and business outcomes across the organisation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Oracle Cloud licences already in place, we expanded beyond sourcing by implementing Oracle Transportation Management. It was one of our first cloud deployments in 2019 and delivered immediate value by embedding local trade compliance across multiple countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then rolled out sourcing, supplier and contract management, followed by demand forecasting. Even before migrating our core ERP, we were already building an ecosystem of cloud applications around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next challenge was analytics. Standard reporting wasn’t giving us the visibility we needed, so we invested heavily in Oracle Analytics Cloud. As our analytics matured, we realised we were continually building custom business intelligence, which led us to implement what is now the Fusion AI Data Intelligence Platform (FAIDP). Today, it underpins our finance, procurement and supply chain decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes our journey different is that we never approached it as an African organisation trying to replicate someone else’s model. We understood our own operational realities and designed accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often ask people what MTN actually manufactures. The answer is airtime and data. We don’t manufacture physical products, so our business depends entirely on global suppliers across China, Europe, the United States and elsewhere. That makes trade management one of our most critical capabilities, particularly given the complexity of customs regulations and duty structures across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To manage that complexity, we created a single data foundation and invited our largest suppliers into what became our control tower. The more visibility suppliers shared, the more efficiently we could manage lead times, compliance and documentation. Procurement teams naturally directed more business towards suppliers that consistently performed well, creating a virtuous cycle of transparency and operational improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, that platform evolved into what we call the Nerve Centre, which formed the basis of our Oracle Customer Excellence Award submission. Rather than focusing on technology, we demonstrated measurable business outcomes, including improved efficiency, faster execution, stronger compliance and better data quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also made a conscious decision to build internal capability. While we continue to use Oracle Consulting Services for specialised configuration work, our own teams lead training and adoption because local trainers understand the realities of each market and build far greater credibility with users. We continue to adopt Oracle’s standard functionality wherever possible while enhancing the platform only where it delivers genuine business value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was there any specific business challenge or turning point that made you rethink your analytics and data strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, supply chain is about managing constant disruption. Every day presents a new challenge. It may not always be a geopolitical crisis, but there is always something happening somewhere across our markets that affects operations. We need continuity, visibility and the ability to make informed decisions quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take ports as an example. In Dubai, if a shipment arrives at Jebel Ali, you generally expect it to clear within a day or two. In some of the African ports where we operate, there may only be six cranes, and if four of them break down, repairs could take months. Suddenly, a vessel that would normally be unloaded in 48 hours is delayed for a week. Shipping lines don’t want to keep returning to congested ports, so the disruption compounds very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those realities made us realise that operational visibility alone wasn’t enough. We also needed compliance and risk intelligence. In several African markets, import duties can reach 60%. That makes compliance absolutely critical. We cannot afford inaccurate declarations or disputes with local governments, particularly because MTN is one of the largest taxpayers in many of the countries where we operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, we depend heavily on suppliers, shipping lines and global trade routes. Events such as the US-China trade tensions, regional conflicts or supply shortages all have the potential to disrupt our operations. We wanted to understand those risks before they became problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we looked at the market, we realised there wasn’t a solution that provided the level of intelligence we needed, so we built our own risk analysis platform on the Oracle technology stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One principle has guided us throughout the journey: never let a crisis go to waste. When the first wave of US-China trade tensions emerged in 2018, we used it as an opportunity to build a resilience model. That work has since earned multiple international awards because it fundamentally changed how we approach supply chain risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than reacting to disruptions, we wanted to predict their downstream impact. We mapped every relevant data point and analysed the ripple effect of global events. A conflict in one region may appear unrelated to our business, but once you trace the supply chain, the consequences become clear. For example, the disruption of semiconductor-grade neon production during the Russia-Ukraine conflict had implications for global semiconductor manufacturing, which ultimately affected telecommunications equipment availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By understanding those interdependencies, we can identify potential risks much earlier and determine what actions should be taken before operations are affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, our analytics strategy is no longer just about reporting. It is about building resilience, anticipating disruption and giving the business the intelligence it needs to stay ahead of uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oracle Fusion AI Data Intelligence Platform provides a single, governed data model. Has it fundamentally changed decision-making at the business leadership level?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simple answer is yes. The more nuanced answer is that every question you answer opens up three or four more. That’s the nature of analytics. The better your data becomes, the deeper your business questions become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the areas I oversee is operating free cash flow and working capital management. Traditionally, that means focusing on payables, receivables and inventory turns to improve the cash conversion cycle. The initial insights from the Fusion AI Data Intelligence Platform (FAIDP) were extremely valuable, but we quickly realised that standard dashboards weren’t enough. We wanted more than drill-down reports. We needed deeper, more granular insights into complex business issues such as vendor performance, payment behaviour and operational risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, FAIDP hasn’t simply changed how we report data. It has changed the quality of business discussions. Instead of making decisions based on isolated metrics, we can balance financial performance with supplier relationships, compliance and long-term resilience. I wouldn’t describe it as a one-time transformation. It’s an ongoing evolution, with every new insight creating opportunities to ask better questions and make smarter decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you actively exploring AI agents, and how do you strike the right balance between AI-driven decisions and human oversight?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the first wave of AI capabilities arrived, everyone wanted to switch everything on. We took a different approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my perspective, there are two dimensions to AI within Oracle. The first is the AI embedded directly into Oracle Fusion applications. The second is the AI framework available through Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC). Most of our enterprise data resides in OAC, where we combine Oracle Fusion data with non-Oracle data, supplier information, and both structured and unstructured datasets. That is where I see the greatest opportunity for AI agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even today, my team is evaluating the pre-built AI capabilities Oracle has introduced. The last time we counted, there were around 150 available. My instruction was very simple: assess every capability individually, give it a fair trial and determine whether it genuinely solves a business problem. If it doesn’t, switch it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re not interested in deploying AI for the sake of saying we have AI. Every AI agent has to demonstrate a clear business outcome, whether that’s improving productivity, reducing risk, strengthening compliance or helping people make faster, better-informed decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human oversight remains essential. AI is there to augment decision-making, not replace accountability. Our approach is to let AI analyse information, surface recommendations and automate repetitive tasks, while ensuring that critical business decisions remain under human control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the balance we’re trying to achieve: use AI where it genuinely creates value, measure adoption carefully and always keep people responsible for the final decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operating across 16 African markets with 313 million subscribers demands far more than technology. It requires resilience, visibility and the ability to make decisions at speed. In this interview, Arun Kumar, Global Lead \u2013 Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Excellence at MTN, explains how Oracle Fusion Cloud and a unified data strategy helped the telecom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7289,"featured_media":81299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,262],"tags":[496,3874,300],"class_list":["post-81297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-ai","tag-mtn","tag-oracle"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7289"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81297"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81320,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81297\/revisions\/81320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}