Karl Toriola, chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria.

Karl Toriola, chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria, has urged Nigerian states to invest in ICT parks.

Toriola shared his views yesterday while presenting as a panelist at the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG29) in Abuja on the topic "Collaboration for Sustainable Economic Development" with the theme "Pathway to Sustainable Economic Transformation and Inclusion."

He stated this investment would promote and accelerate the country's progress in the ICT sector.

Toriola said: “I am waiting for the first state to create an ICT park. It is not an ICT park where you put a few data centres.

“I am talking about a complete environment where you allow limitless fibre to be rolled out to cover those kinds of locations, and where you allow leading technologies, with power and other infrastructure”

The CEO also urged governments to form clusters centred on agriculture, mining, and policy consistency in economic development, while praising the Nigerian Communications Commission for creating a robust regulatory framework to promote the expansion of Nigeria's telecoms business.

"The success of MTN and the telecommunications industry in Nigeria can be accounted for by clarity of policy and good institution building in our primary regulator," he said.

"However, we have also seen that at the sub-national levels, we see some level of inconsistencies of policies, multiple taxation, and inflation have become the major challenges companies are facing," he went on to say.