Zambia's goal is to achieve 96 percent connectivity across the country.

MTN Zambia has announced a plan to upgrade 50 network towers to 4G service this year.

The upgrade of these towers from 2G and 3G coincides with the government's attempts to phase out such infrastructure.

In addition, officials said that MTN has built 110 towers in rural areas during the last two years. Among them, 18 have been upgraded to 3G.

"MTN is committed towards universal access and rural coverage," Abbad Reda, MTN Zambia Chief Executive Officer, said.

Redda was speaking at Mushindamo, a northern district in Zambia.

The mobile provider commissioned a 4G network tower, which it anticipated would increase communication.

The event's guest of honour was Felix Mutati, minister of science and technology.

He praised MTN for supporting the government's proposal to phase out towers with networks inferior than 4G.

"The private sector must work together in order to increase connectivity to the Zambian people," he went on to say.

"MTN is demonstrating practical partnership by delivering and upgrading its towers," he said.

Mutati stated that Zambia's goal  is to achieve 96 percent connectivity across the country.

Most of the tower upgrades are in the North Western province, where this year the government wants 19 4G towers constructed and 41 of them upgraded.

"This is meant to break the digital divide and increase connectivity on both voice and data calls," Mutati said.