Ladies now occupy 41.4% of all leadership roles at MTN in 2024, up from 38.7% in 2023. That’s bigger than double the exchange reasonable of around 20% in Nigeria’s ICT sector. This achievement presentations MTN’s dedication to empowering ladies at every stage, from heart administration to the chief suite.
By its “Ambition 2025” understanding, the firm has centered on things love technical coaching and updates to its governance policies to eradicate boundaries maintaining ladies help.
In consequence, MTN now has a grand pipeline of female skill influencing selections, sparking original suggestions, and helping to form the manner forward for telecom in Nigeria.
Listed below are the head 7 ladies main MTN Nigeria’s telecom future;
1. Ugonwa Nwoye, Chief Buyer Relatives & Abilities Officer
Ugonwa Nwoye joined MTN Nigeria in 2018 as Head of Buyer Insights, armed with a Master’s in Marketing Communications from the College of Lagos. By 2022, her knack for translating customer suggestions into actionable strategies propelled her to the characteristic of Chief Buyer Relatives & Abilities Officer.
Strategic Initiatives:
Under her leadership, MTN launched a “Mumble of the Buyer” analytics platform that mines data from call centres, social media, and dwell chat to establish trouble facets in proper-time. Nwoye’s personnel integrated these insights into quarterly service-enchancment cycles, ensuing in:
A 15% year-on-year elevate in customer pleasure (CSAT) rankings in 2023–2024.
A 10% reduction in reasonable call resolution events, attributable to workflow optimisations driven by her data fashions.
Influence:
Nwoye spearheaded an omnichannel loyalty program, “MTN Y’ello Rewards”, tailored to assorted subscriber segments (e.g., formative years, SMEs, excessive-fetch-value folks). Within six months of open, this contrivance registered over 2 million enrollments and drove a 12% uplift in Moderate Revenue Per Person (ARPU).
Recognition:
In leisurely 2024, she changed into once shortlisted for “Buyer Abilities Chief of the 365 days” on the Nigeria Telecom Awards, an acknowledgement of her characteristic in reworking MTN’s subscriber engagement mannequin.
2. Oby Ugboma, Chief Probability & Compliance Officer
Oby Ugboma’s moral background—an LLB from the College of Benin and a Master’s in Corporate Governance from Cranfield College—supplied the basis for her ascent within MTN. She joined as Senior Upright Counsel in 2016 and appreciate develop into Chief Probability & Compliance Officer in early 2023.
Governance Strengthening:
Facing an ever-evolving regulatory ambiance (e.g., Nigeria’s Data Security Rules, Central Bank of Nigeria directives), Ugboma led a compliance overhaul that included:
Probability Flee for food Framework: Designing a matrix that classifies original exchange ventures by likelihood stage, guaranteeing that any excessive-likelihood initiative (equivalent to cell money or fintech partnerships) undergoes stringent board review.
Automated Audit Trails: Imposing a cloud-basically based fully compliance portal that flags irregular transactions or contract anomalies, reducing manual oversight by 40%.
Results:
Her initiatives contributed to a 30% reduction in audit findings at some stage in the 2023–2024 cycle and helped MTN steer definite of possible fines linked to SIM-card registration lapses. Regulatory our bodies appreciate since cited MTN as a benchmark for compliance most moving practices.
3. Uto Ukpanah, Company Secretary
As MTN Nigeria’s Company Secretary since 2020, Uto Ukpanah has performed a pivotal characteristic in bridging boardroom approach and on-the-floor execution. A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Ukpanah brings over 15 years of governance trip to the telco’s leadership desk.
Key Contributions:
Board Composition: Orchestrated a review of MTN’s board charters, guaranteeing that women help 40% of all independent director roles, a transfer that aligns with rising ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) expectations.
Stakeholder Engagement: Established a bi-annual “MTN Governance Dialogue board” where executive directors, regulators, and shareholder representatives debate protection shifts, equivalent to spectrum licensing payments, properly sooner than formal filings.
Awards & Recognition:
In 2024, Ukpanah changed into once named “World Corporate Secretary of the 365 days” by the Corporate Secretaries World Association. She changed into once lauded for her clear board reporting and her advocacy for female representation in company governance.
4. Lynda Saint-Nwafor, Chief Endeavor Industry Officer
Lynda Saint-Nwafor’s background in engineering (B. Eng, College of Nigeria, Nsukka) and an MBA in Abilities Management from Lagos Industry Faculty positioned her as a natural fit to lead MTN’s enterprise exchange unit starting in 2022.
Riding Endeavor Growth:
Saint-Nwafor realigned the SME and company gross sales groups below a unified “Endeavor Solutions Division,” standardising choices from cloud infrastructure to cybersecurity. Her come included:
Bundled Provider Programs: Tailoring ICT bundles (e.g., fibre connectivity + managed security) that ship predictable OPEX fashions for mid-sized enterprises.
Partnership Ecosystem: Forging alliances with Microsoft, Cisco, and AWS to present cost-added providers and products, equivalent to cloud migration make stronger, at preferential rates.
Outcomes:
Under her leadership, the enterprise section’s earnings grew by 40% from 2022 to 2024. Buyer retention amongst high-200 company accounts improved by 18%, attributed to superior service-stage agreements (SLAs) and dedicated myth administration.
5. Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, Chief Marketing Officer
Armed with a Master’s in Tag Management from the College of Birmingham, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka took cost of MTN Nigeria’s advertising and marketing characteristic in leisurely 2023. Her vision: modernise MTN’s designate image to enchantment to an increasingly extra savvy, digital-first viewers.
Reinventing Tag Technique:
Digital-First Campaigns: Launched the #MTNXperience sequence of quick-construct videos and webisodes highlighting proper-life customer success tales at some stage in sectors (agriculture, fintech, telemedicine). This boosted MTN’s Instagram engagement by 50% and doubled YouTube viewership.
Influencer Partnerships: Partnered with high influencers in entertainment and sports—leveraging their reach to drive digital adoption. As an instance, a collaboration with a number one Afrobeat artist yielded a 25% spike in cell-data uptake within one month.
Metrics of Success:
Ikenna-Emeka’s campaigns drove a 20% elevate in conversions for bundled data+negate capabilities and raised designate-favorability rankings by 12 facets in market surveys.
6. Josephine Sarouk, CEO of Bayobab (MTN FibreCo)
Josephine Sarouk, an alumnus of Stanford Graduate Faculty of Industry and a weak broadband strategist at Google, changed into once appointed CEO of Bayobab MTN’s wholly-owned fibre-infrastructure subsidiary in early 2023.
Expanding Fibre Footprint:
Charged with reaching 50% broadband penetration in underserved areas by 2025, Sarouk implemented:
Community Co-ops: Established local partnerships to piece final-mile infrastructure payments, reducing deployment payments by 25%.
Rural Connectivity Hubs: Launched “Digital Villages” pilot projects in Ondo and Oyo states, offering free Wi-Fi in neighborhood centres, which attracted a median of 1,200 day to day users per hub.
Influence:
Under her tenure, Bayobab’s fibre community expanded to prevail in over 500 communities, translating to a 10% elevate in general broadband penetration in Q4 2024. This expansion also facilitated a 15% uptick in IoT (Web of Things) solutions uptake amongst SMEs in agriculture and logistics.
7. Esther Akinnukawe, Chief Human Sources Officer
Esther Akinnukawe holds a Ph.D. in Organisational Psychology from the College of Ibadan and joined MTN Nigeria as HR Director in 2021. By mid-2022, she changed into once promoted to Chief Human Sources Officer, tasked with aligning skill-administration strategies with MTN’s Ambition 2025 aims.
Skill & Custom Improvements:
Y’ello Mums Internship: Akinnukawe championed this returnship program, which supports ladies re-coming into the group after maternity lope away. Contributors appreciate the earnings of versatile work schedules, mentorship pairing, and quick-tracked leadership coaching. Of the 200 ladies who joined in 2023, 70% transitioned to permanent roles.
Ladies in Tech Academy: Launched a partnership with Andela and Coursera to present certification tracks in Cloud Computing, AI/ML, and Data Science solely for female workers. By year-cease 2024, over 300 ladies had finished no longer lower than one certification, with 40 promoted into technical leadership posts.
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Under Akinnukawe’s steering, MTN established the “MTN HER Network,” a inappropriate-departmental ERG that organises quarterly workshops on leadership, networking, and wellness. Participation soared to 1,500 workers in 2024, up from moral 400 in 2022.
Her initiatives contributed to an 18% reduction in female turnover rates between 2022 and 2024 and a 25% elevate in ladies promoted to managerial positions.
