Pan-African service provider MTN Group has announced some key leadership changes among its operating companies and at its digital infrastructure business, most notably at MTN Group's wholesale fibre optic subsidiary Bayobab.
Mitwa Ng’ambi, CEO of MTN Cameroon since September 2022, will move to the same position at MTN Côte d’Ivoire, effective 1 March 2025, as Djibril Ouattara takes early retirement. Wanda Matandela, chief commercial operations officer at MTN South Africa, has been appointed as the new CEO for MTN Cameroon, effective 1 March 2025.
Most significant perhaps is the announcement that, effective 1 January 2025, Mazen Mroue, MTN group chief technology and information officer (GCTIO), will assume additional responsibilities as CEO of Digital Infrastructure (Infraco). This dual role will incorporate the mobility and fibre businesses of Bayobab, along with executing MTN’s data centre strategy as the MTN Group positions itself for growth and profitability in the development of AI across Africa.
Since joining MTN in 1998, Mazen has held various senior positions within the Group’s regional operations in Africa and the Middle East and served as a board member of various companies within the MTN Group.
What this means is that Frédéric Schepens, current CEO of Bayobab, will be leaving the group effective immediately. This is described by news resource ITWeb Africa as “a surprise move” – and indeed this departure has been the main headline for a number of African news outlets reporting these changes.
ITWeb Africa mentions a number of setbacks this year – and certainly the conflict in Sudan the depreciation of the naira, and disruptions caused by multiple subsea cable cuts have been challenging. However, another news source, TechFinancials, reporting on Bayobab’s financial results in August, said: “In this challenging environment, Bayobab achieved a resilient financial performance”, and added that in the first half of the year it had secured a number of new fixed connectivity infrastructure deals
MTN Group, however, simply notes that the changes are “aimed at addressing succession, operational execution, and advancing the Ambition 2025 strategy”.
