MTN Group hosted Africa’s first TM Forum Open API Spec Jam, with active participation from across its digital ecosystem, including Chenosis and Bayobab.
Over four days in Johannesburg, 130 technical professionals from 21 companies and three continents came together with a clear goal: to develop API specifications that reflect real-world integration challenges and support scalable digital services across African markets.
Participation was both technical and strategic. Attendees included architects, developers, platform specialists and ecosystem leads from telecommunications operators, fintech firms and digital service providers. The engagement reflected strong interest in using APIs to unlock cross-industry capabilities, particularly in areas such as identity verification, fraud detection, financial services integration and distributed ledger applications.
The result was a set of 11 Open API specifications, each co-developed with deployment in mind. These APIs were shaped by practical use cases, from fraud reduction and customer onboarding to data integrity and AI accessibility. Every specification was grounded in the operating realities of the continent and informed by the shared experience of those building and managing digital infrastructure across Africa.
The APIs specified during the Spec Jam focused on key areas where consistency and interoperability are critical to enabling digital services. These included digital identity, where standardised approaches can support more secure access to financial services; location data, which plays a role in improving emergency response, logistics and city planning; and lightweight AI models, aimed at supporting greater inclusion on basic mobile devices. Other areas of focus included blockchain interfaces to strengthen data integrity and transactional trust, loyalty and engagement mechanisms to support more targeted customer experiences, and standards that could enhance the efficiency of 5G network management in diverse operating environments.
The event also served as a platform for collaboration across MTN Group’s technology ecosystem. Contributions from Chenosis, MTN’s API marketplace, and Bayobab, its digital infrastructure business, ensured the work remained grounded in real operating conditions. Their teams brought practical insights on developer enablement and infrastructure scalability, supporting the development of specifications shaped for real-world deployment.
The session also highlighted the importance of regional participation in shaping technical standards. By contributing directly to the specification process, African developers and ecosystem leaders are helping build tools that are both relevant and usable. This engagement strengthens the connection between standardisation and delivery and ensures that the solutions developed reflect both market needs and implementation realities.
This first Open API Spec Jam on African soil demonstrated what becomes possible when technical alignment meets contextual understanding. By working collectively to define shared digital building blocks, participants helped lay the groundwork for infrastructure that can scale with confidence, respond to local conditions and evolve as new services emerge. For MTN, it reflects a continued commitment to advancing open, inclusive digital ecosystems that support growth across the continent and beyond.
Nikos Angelopoulos, MTN Group Chief Information Officer
Africa’s digital future will be shaped by the standards we define today. Hosting the first Open API Spec Jam on the continent is an important step in ensuring those standards reflect African realities and are built for scale. This Spec Jam has shown what becomes possible when regional expertise meets global collaboration. It affirms our belief that open standards are essential to building the digital infrastructure our markets need to grow, integrate and adapt.
Nik Willetts, CEO of TM Forum
Thank you to MTN, and its teams from Bayobab and Chenosis for hosting the first-ever TM Forum Open API Spec Jam in Africa. We achieved record-breaking participation and shone a spotlight on African innovation. The contributions made here will influence global API standards for years to come.
