Wim Vanhelleputte who has been the MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer is leaving MTN Uganda. He is headed to West Africa as the MTN Group’s Chief Operations Executive, a newly created role, to oversee Liberia, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, and Congo-Brazzaville effective 1 August 2022.

He will report to the Senior Vice President: Markets, Ebenezer Asante – Twum.

He will be replaced by Mulinge Sylvia from Kenya’s Safaricom PLC. Sylvia, a telecom veteran is currently serving as the Chief Consumer Business Officer at Safaricom PLC, a USD 15 Billion, and most profitable company in East and Central Africa.

Slyvia will assume her new office on 1st October 2022. In the meantime, the MTN Uganda CFO, Andrew Bugembe, will be the acting Chief Executive Officer. 

The MTN Group has also the MTN South Africa Chief Consumer Officer Mapula Bodibe at the CEO MTN Rwanda. The MTN Rwanda CEO Mitwa Ng’ambi becomes CEO of MTN Cameroon, replacing Stephen Blewett, who is leaving the Group.

The appointment of these executives, all with strong track records of execution and results, adds to our confidence on delivery of our Ambition 2025 strategy”, remarked MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita.

Wim, who joined MTN Uganda in July 2016, has led the company through many firsts, including its much-awaited listing on the Uganda Securities Exchange on December 06th 2021. 

He also led the company to cross the UGX2 trillion mark in operating revenue in its 23-year history. As of the end of 202i, the company’s revenues, crossed the UGX2 trillion mark, reaching UGX2.06 trillion! Total assets, also crossed UGX3 trillion, reaching UGX3.3 trillion and customers surpassed 15 million, closing the year at 15.7 million!

During Wim’s 6 years at MTN, he has grown MTN’s revenue by 57% from UGX1.308 trillion in 2016, to UGX2.060 trillion in 2021- a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 8%. During this time MTN’s net profit has grown from UGX96 billion to UGX340 billion, a growth of 254%― a compounded annual growth rate of 23%! MTN has also transformed from a UGX1.509 trillion asset company to well over UGX3.298 trillion! Under Wim’s watch, MTN has also grown from 8.9 million subscribers to well over 15.7.

Wim is no stranger to West Africa. Before coming to Uganda, he was the MTN CEO for Cote D’Ivoire.

Source: CEO East Africa Magazine