MTN Converged Solutions: Empowering South African Farmers with Seamless Connectivity and Digital Tools....

MTN South Africa’s chief enterprise business officer Tumi Sekhukhune-Chamayou

By Editor | December 9, 2025

In the heart of South Africa's agricultural heartlands—from the vast maize fields of the Free State to the citrus groves of the Eastern Cape—farmers face a relentless triad of challenges: erratic weather, rising input costs, and fragmented supply chains that erode margins in a R400 billion sector. Yet, amid these pressures, a digital lifeline is emerging from an unlikely source: MTN, the continent's telecom giant. Through its MTN Converged Solutions—a suite blending mobile, ICT, IoT, and financial services—MTN is positioning itself as a pivotal enabler for AgriTech, helping farmers transition from reactive survival to data-driven prosperity.

Launched as part of MTN Business's broader push into Industry 4.0, Converged Solutions integrates high-speed connectivity with tailored applications to deliver real-time insights and automation. At Nampo 2025 in Bothaville, MTN showcased these tools to a captivated audience of growers, emphasizing how converged mobile and ICT can foster smarter, more resilient farming.

For smallholders—who produce 80% of SA's food but often lack reliable broadband—this means access to pest alerts, weather forecasts, and market linkages via a simple smartphone. As Tumi Sekhukhune-Chamayou, MTN SA's Chief Enterprise Business Officer, noted, "We're not just connecting devices; we're connecting farmers to opportunities that drive efficiency and sustainability."In a nation where rural connectivity hovers at 38% for 4G, MTN's solutions are bridging the gap, potentially boosting yields by 15–25% while cutting water and chemical use by up to 30%.

This article unpacks MTN Converged Solutions, their core components, and how they're transforming farms—from optimizing fleets to preventing livestock losses—while aligning with SA's National Agri-Tech Strategy for inclusive growth.

What Are MTN Converged Solutions?

At its core, MTN Converged Solutions is a holistic ecosystem that fuses MTN's robust mobile network (covering 99% of the population) with advanced ICT tools, creating a "one-stop" platform for business digitalization. For agriculture, it emphasizes convergence: mobile data for on-the-go access, IoT for sensor-driven monitoring, and cloud analytics for predictive insights—all accessible via affordable bundles starting at R299/month.

Unlike siloed offerings, Converged Solutions operates as an integrated stack:

• Connectivity Backbone: 4G/5G rural expansions and LPWAN (Low-Power Wide-Area Networks) for low-data IoT devices, ensuring uptime even in remote Karoo ranches.

• IoT and Edge Computing: Sensors and gateways that process data locally, minimizing latency for time-sensitive alerts like frost warnings.

• Mobile Money (MoMo): Financial services for seamless payments, loans, and insurance—crucial in a sector where 70% of smallholders are unbanked.

• Custom Apps and APIs: Tailored platforms for farm management, integrated with partners like Aerobotics for drone data or AgriCloud for weather advisories.

This convergence empowers farmers to "farm smarter," as Sekhukhune-Chamayou puts it, by turning raw data into actionable decisions without needing a tech degree.With over 1,000 rural sites deployed across Africa, MTN's footprint ensures scalability from a 5-ha plot to a 5,000-ha estate.

How Converged Solutions Help Farmers: From Field to Fork

MTN's toolkit addresses agriculture's pain points head-on, delivering efficiency, resilience, and revenue growth. Here's how it's making a difference:

Precision Farming and Resource Optimization

IoT sensors monitor soil moisture, pH, and nutrients in real-time, feeding data into MTN's edge-enabled apps for automated irrigation and fertilizer recommendations. In the Free State, wheat farmers using these cut water use by 40% amid El Niño droughts, saving R15,000–30,000/ha while complying with CARA regulations on resource conservation.The MTN Connected Farm platform aggregates this with weather APIs, providing hyper-local forecasts to preempt hail or frost—vital after last week's Highveld battering.

Fleet and Asset Management

MTN Connected Fleet tracks tractors, harvesters, and trucks via GPS and IoT, optimizing routes to dodge traffic or floods on the N3. Dashboard analytics predict maintenance, reducing breakdowns by 30% during peak seasons. A Western Cape citrus exporter reported R500,000 in annual fuel savings, plus theft deterrence through geo-fencing alerts—slashing equipment losses that cost SA farms R1 billion yearly.

Livestock Monitoring and Security

Smart collars and ear tags, powered by MTN's LPWAN, track animal health, location, and behavior—flagging distress or strays instantly via SMS. In the Karoo, sheep farmers have cut theft by 35% and mortality by 18%, with data patterns informing better grazing rotations.Integrated with MoMo, it enables parametric insurance payouts for losses, empowering women-led co-ops (43% of the workforce) with quick claims.

Market Access and Financial Inclusion

MoMo bridges the unbanked gap, offering instant payments for produce sales and micro-loans for inputs—up to R10,000 at 10–15% interest. Paired with digital marketplaces, farmers access real-time pricing and buyers, bypassing middlemen. A Mpumalanga macadamia grower using MTN's app secured a 20% premium on exports via traceability features, aligning with EU CBAM standards.

Climate Resilience and Advisory Services

Apps deliver pest alerts, weather updates, and extension advice via USSD or WhatsApp, even offline. In KwaZulu-Natal's sugarcane zones, MTN's climate tools helped 87 women farmers reduce losses by 29% through timely interventions.

These aren't isolated perks; Converged Solutions integrates with partners like GrowForMe for input financing, extending reach across Africa.

Real-World Impact: Stories from the Soil

Take Thabo Mthembu, a 200-ha maize farmer in the North West: MTN Connected Fleet and IoT sensors optimized his irrigation, yielding 18% more corn despite 15% less rain—netting R800,000 extra revenue.Or the Eastern Cape vegetable co-op of 42 women: MoMo loans and advisory apps lifted incomes 22%, funding community solar pumps for load-shedding resilience.

DALRRD pilots confirm: Adopters see 34% higher yields and 41% lower pesticide spend, with 75% of commercial farms now exploring MTN bundles.

Challenges and the Path Forward

Adoption isn't seamless. Rural 5G lags at 30%, upfront IoT costs (R5,000+) burden smallholders, and digital literacy gaps affect 62% over 50. MTN counters with subsidized kits (up to 70% via Land Bank grants) and the Digital Champions program, training 50,000 users by year-end.

Looking ahead, MTN's 2025 roadmap includes AI-enhanced MoMo for predictive lending and 5G private networks for farm-wide IoT—poised to propel SA's USD 1.1 billion AgriTech market to USD 50 billion by 2030.

Convergence for a Connected Harvest

MTN Converged Solutions isn't reinventing farming—it's re-empowering it. By weaving connectivity, data, and finance into a seamless fabric, MTN helps farmers from the Highveld to the Cape harvest not just crops, but opportunities. In an era of uncertainty, these tools aren't luxuries—they're lifelines. Ready to converge? MTN's rural advisors are a call away.

How has digital tech transformed your farm?

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