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Following on from strong first half 2022 results, MTN Group today announces the further deleveraging of the balance sheet with the early settlement of US$300 million in eurobonds with a 2024 maturity date. This brings MTN’s dollar-denominated debt down to 35% of total holding company (Holdco) debt on a H1 2022 proforma basis.

In late August, MTN invited eligible holders of the US$750 million eurobond – due to mature in November 2024 – to tender their notes for purchase by the company for cash. The offer attracted tenders of more than US$482 million. This was significantly more than the US$250 million originally intended for early settlement. As a result, MTN raised the final acceptance amount to US$300 million, which will be settled on Tuesday 6 September 2022.

“In line with our Ambition 2025 strategy, we are committed to deleveraging the balance sheet faster in line with our capital allocation framework,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita. “This week’s early settlement supports delivery of this commitment as well as of the execution and delivery of our medium-term guidance to maintain the Holdco leverage below 1.5x.”

MTN Group Chief Financial Officer Tsholofelo Molefe said that as the settlement would be funded from available cash balances, it did not affect the pro-forma Holdco leverage of 0.8x at 30 June 2022. “However, on a pro-forma basis, the settlement improves the end-June 2022 ratio of non-rand to rand debt to 35:65 from the 42:58 ratio reported in the Group’s interim results.”

At end-December 2021, the Holdco leverage was 1.0x. The improvement in the first half of 2022 to 0.8x was boosted by the repatriation of R9.4 billion in cash from our operating companies (including R4.5 billion from MTN Nigeria).

MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Christian Bombrun as CEO: Digital Platforms, effective 1 September 2022. 

Christian takes over from Minnie Harris, who has been acting in the role since April 2022. Minnie, who has been double-hatting over the past four months will now focus solely on her responsibilities as Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Digital Platforms.

In his role, Christian will be responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining the long-term growth and commercial strategy for Digital in MTN.

“Christian is a seasoned professional in the areas of entertainment, digital and technologies, and brings 25 years of experience to MTN,” said Jens Schulte-Bockum, Group Chief Operating Officer.

Christian joins MTN from the Emmanuel Macron presidential campaign in France, where he was the Head of Communication and Digital.

Prior to this mission, he spent 8 years at Orange in France and corporate, where his roles included Director of Products and Services for the French market and Director of Orange Content at group level (2020-2021). At Orange, his responsibilities included product design for the consumer market, as well as managing the pay TV and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD), music games, ioT and financial services, OCS the Orange pay TV company, and the Orange movie studio.

Christian’s other roles include Deputy Managing Director of M6 Web (the online and digital division of M6 Group) and Director of Marketing and Business Development at the Canal+ Group.

He holds a Masters Degree in Management Science at IMT Business and a Masters Degree in Television, Telecoms and Internet, from Dauphine University (Paris).

MTN Group is pleased to announce that Marvin Ncube has been appointed Executive: Business Finance, effective 1 September 2022.

Marvin is a seasoned finance executive with more than 19 years’ experience in strategic business planning, business performance, capex management, statutory reporting and revenue assurance.   

In his role, Marvin will lead three core finance sub functions which impact and influence financial business performance for the Group. These are Group Financial Planning and Analysis, Regional and Manco Finance Business Partnering and Group Capital Management.

“Given his vast experience, expertise and accomplishments, I am confident that Marvin will add immense value to these portfolios and to the Group,” said Tsholo Molefe, Group Chief Financial Officer. 

Marvin joins MTN Group from Telkom, where he was the Group Executive: Group Financial Controller. Prior to Telkom, he was the Finance Business Partner (Divisional CFO) at Eskom.

He served on a number of boards including the South African Dental Association (SADA), Mozambique Transmission Company (Montraco), Eskom and Trans-Africa Projects, providing strategic insights and direction.

Marvin is a CA (SA) with an MBA from University of Pretoria (GIBS). He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) degree from Rhodes University and a Postgraduate Diploma from the University of Cape Town.

MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Willington Ngwepe to the new post of Chief of Staff in the office of the Group President and Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 October 2022.

Willington joins from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), where he has spent the last five years as CEO. Before that, he was ICASA’s chief operating officer.

“Willington brings with him extensive leadership, technology and regulatory experience that will be invaluable as we execute on our strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “We welcome him to the MTN Group, where his focus will be on providing advisory, strategic and operational support on specific matters driven directly from the GCEO office.”

Willington has a LLB and LLM (Communication Law) from the University of the Witwatersrand, and an LLM (Tax Law) from the University of South Africa.

MTN Group reported a resilient performance in the first half of 2022, balancing an accelerated investment into its networks, reducing the cost to communicate and the delivery of solid financial results.

We advanced the delivery of our strategy under challenging conditions, which included macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, global supply chain disruptions, constrained on-grid power supply in South Africa and greater regulatory requirements across many markets.

“Notwithstanding the tough macro conditions, MTN remained focused on investing in our markets to increase broadband coverage and to reduce the cost to communicate,” said President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “We accelerated network investment to R17.1 billion and spent an additional R7 billion on securing 4G and 5G spectrum in the key markets of South Africa and Nigeria.”

The investment in networks increased access to broadband services to 85.5% of the population and led to an average 22.5% reduction in data tariffs. Our contribution to society and economies also included cash taxes of R7.3 billion paid to nation states in the period.

In driving investment that grows gross capital formation, the contribution we made to jobs and the fiscal resources of nation states was underlined by good financial results in the first six months of 2022.

In constant-currency terms, service revenue grew by 14.8% to R92.5 billion; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 15.1% to R43.9 billion before once-off items; and the EBITDA margin expanded by 0.3 percentage points to 45.3%. This was supported by the focused execution of our expense efficiency programme.

“Growth in data revenue was particularly strong, up 35.9%, driven by MTN Nigeria, MTN Ghana, MTN Cameroon and MTN South Africa,” said Mupita, adding that fintech revenue grew by 14.0%, with solid performances from Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana.

“The introduction of fintech taxes in some markets slowed revenue growth in Q2, but we remain encouraged by the ecosystem growth as users, agents and merchants continued to grow healthily during the period under review, with transaction volumes growing by 31.5% during the period.”

As part of our Ambition 2025, we are building five scale platform businesses on top of a very strong connectivity network. The fintech platform is the most mature of these, and in the first half it had 60.7 million Mobile Money users (up 24% year-on-year), generating six billion transactions worth US$116.3 billion. The total number of MTN subscribers in the period was 281.6 million, up 5.6%.

We made progress in our work to separate our fintech and fibre businesses from our GSM business and have started the process of engagement with select potential strategic investors into the Group Fintech structure, the outcome of which should be concluded by the end of the year.

Chief Financial Officer Tsholo Molefe said the Group accelerated the deleveraging of the balance sheet in the six months to end-June 2022, boosted by the repatriation of R9.4 billion in cash from operating companies, including R4.5 billion from Nigeria: “We continue to explore opportunities for further liability management and remain focused on reducing the hard currency liabilities on our balance sheet.”

Underlying operating free cashflow growth was strong at 24.0%, and return on equity increased to 24.2%, reflecting the consistent delivery of earnings.

We accelerated our portfolio transformation, delivering R9.2 billion in asset realisations in the first half and bringing the total realised since March 2020 to R15.8 billion, with proceeds supporting the group leverage and liquidity positions, which strengthened during the period. In line with our pan-Africa focus, we accepted a binding offer for 100% of MTN Afghanistan.

Localisations remained important in the period, as we prioritised creating shared value, broadening local participation and deepening capital markets. In Ghana we increased local ownership to 23.7% through share sales to pension funds and strategic investors.

Mupita said the headwinds facing customers and the business looked likely to persist in the second half.

“The business is well positioned to navigate the prevailing market conditions. In South Africa, we are focused on improving the resilience and availability of the network, given the constrained on-grid power situation. Battery and generators solutions will be deployed to restore network availability to the world-class standards our customers have been used to. This resilience plan will be executed within the capital expenditure envelope of the business.

“If we experience the same level of loadshedding in H2 as we did in H1 in South Africa, service revenue will come in slightly under guidance, with margins at the lower end of the range communicated to investors. The structurally higher growth opportunities in our markets continue to support the investment case of a compelling Africa growth story that delivers digital and financial inclusion to Africans,” he concluded.

MTN Group’s Mobile Money Application Interface (API) is inviting developers across several markets to participate in an Open API Hackathon, with a challenge to create a mobile application that uses MoMo APIs for use in their markets.

The hackathon will be the second conducted by MTN Group Fintech and will take place in the following countries: eSwatini, Zambia, Congo Brazzaville, Rwanda, Uganda, Cameroon, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea Conakry.

Developers will compete to create an innovative application for the markets in which they are registered, which can process financial transactions with added capabilities that go beyond processing payments and drive both financial inclusion and literacy.

“MTN is committed to extending financial and digital inclusion across the continent in furtherance of its strategy to build a pan-African Fintech platform that will power the digital economy and serve as a catalyst for social and economic growth in Africa,” said Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Chief Fintech Officer.

“With our Open API Platform, we reach out to Africa’s resourceful talents and enable them to grow and create opportunities by leveraging our MoMo Platform. We have no doubt that it is by collaborating with the talents of Africa that we will expand the service offering available on MoMo,” he added.

About the challenge:

Finalists stand the chance to win up to USD 5000 in prize money in their respective country.

To support the accelerated execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy, MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of new CEOs for operations in Cameroon, Rwanda and Uganda effective 1 September 2022. 

MTN also announces the creation of a new senior MTN Group post: that of Operations Executive for Liberia, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, and Congo-Brazzaville effective 1 August 2022, reporting to the Senior Vice President: Markets, Ebenezer Asante -Twum.

“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”. says MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. 

MTN Rwanda CEO Mitwa Ng’ambi becomes CEO of MTN Cameroon, replacing Stephen Blewett, who is leaving the Group. 

Ng’ambi oversaw the listing of MTN Rwanda as well as the establishment of its fintech subsidiary. She was instrumental in strengthening the business’s stakeholder engagement and has also worked in MTN’s Benin and Zambian operations.

MTN South Africa Chief Consumer Officer Mapula Bodibe takes the helm at MTN Rwanda, bringing with her more than 15 years’ experience with MTN, including in Uganda.

She has a strong background in commercial strategy, consumer marketing, customer strategy, brand management and communications, product management and customer analytics.

Sylvia Mulinge becomes MTN Uganda CEO, joining from Safaricom, where she served as Chief Consumer Business Officer for the Group. A seasoned executive, she brings with her a passion for transforming customers’ lives using technology.

Mulinge replaces Wim Vanhelleputte, who will take on the new MTN Group role of Operations Executive: Markets. In this position, he will leverage his experience in furthering financial inclusion and strengthening MTN’s position as a market leader.

Vanhelleputte is a former MTN Côte d’Ivoire CEO and has extensive operational experience across Africa. 

“My thanks to Stephen for his valuable contribution to the MTN Group over the years and wish him well as he journeys to new opportunities outside of the African continent. I welcome Sylvia to the Y’ello family and look forward to working with her, as well as with Mitwa, Mapula and Wim in their new roles, as we continue to execute on our Ambition 2025 strategy, ” says Mupita. 

MTN Group today released the second instalment of its brand refresh with the  ‘Voice’ brand film that highlights how a simple ingredient of life, in this case your voice, can impact and change the way people see the world, and inspire progress. 

In February, MTN launched its new logo and brand campaign to anchor its strategy, Ambition 2025, to build leading digital solutions that enable Africa’s progress across the telecom, fintech, infrastructure, API and content and messaging ecosystem.

The “What are we doing today?” campaign is driven by the insight that all progress comes from action and that the energy and optimism of Africa’s people together with MTN’s commitment to enabling Africa’s digital progress, will contribute to the progress of consumers, countries and ultimately, the African continent. 

Africa is a continent with significant potential and MTN is intent in playing its part in harnessing this potential by bringing relevant solutions to consumers that enable digital and financial inclusion and help them progress in their daily lives.

“Africa’s youth are at the core of this potential and progress, and our brand refresh centres on them as they hold the future in their hands. With the ‘Voice’ brand film, we hope to inspire in them that their voices matter, and to use the power of their voice to impact positive change and advance the progress of everyone on the continent,” said Bernice Samuels, Executive for Marketing.

As an extension of the release of the ‘Voice’ brand film, MTN Group has partnered with TBTM Studios to sponsor Season 3 of the ‘The Mic: Africa’ an interactive talent search programme aimed at empowering and uncovering talented youth across the continent. This production is an embodiment of MTN’s commitment to finding and giving “do-ers” from across Africa an opportunity to use their voice to respond to the invitation of ‘’What are we doing today?’’ The public will be able to view The Mic: Africa on the Premium Free TV app via ayoba, the Superapp, taking Africa by storm. 

MTN is looking forward to revealing the details of the involvement and association with this exciting production in the next few weeks.

MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Riaan Wessels as Chief Risk Officer: Fintech with effect from 1 July 2022. 

Riaan has 13 years’ experience at MTN. He first joined the company in 2004, as General Manager: Business Risk Management and returned in 2017 as Group Executive: Risk and Compliance.

“As Chief Risk Officer: Fintech, Riaan will continue to add immense value at MTN by effectively managing risk exposures to the business and ensuring robust processes and controls,” said Serigne Dioum, Group Chief Fintech Officer.

Over the past 20 years, Riaan has implemented complex programmes at multinational companies in the technology and telecommunications industries. This includes leading large risk management, compliance and internal audit teams across operating environments in the Middle East and Africa.

Riaan holds a BComm Honours degree from the University of Free State in Accounting, Auditing and Tax and a Postgraduate diploma in Business Leadership from GIBS.

He is also a Board member of MTN Rwanda and MTN Côte d’Ivoire as well as Member and Chairman of the Board of MTN Guinea Conakry


MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Goodrich as Executive for Banktech in our Group Fintech team, effective, 1 June 2022.    

Andrew joined MTN in 2019 as a General Manager for Banktech & Beyond Payments division, where he has added immense value in executing our digital banking strategy.

“We are delighted to welcome Andrew into his new role within the Group Fintech Team. Andrew is no stranger to MTN and his wealth of experience in the financial sector, will ensure we continue to make a meaningful contribution, as we drive our financial inclusion ambitions on the continent.” said Serigne Dioum, Group Chief Fintech Officer.

“Andrew has 30 years’ experience in the financial services sector, twelve of which were spent at senior leadership level. Andrew has built a stellar career through his innate ability to craft an organisational vision, mobilise strategic and tactical plans, and execute with well-led and highly effective teams. He is a strategic yet practical leader, renowned for his hands-on approach to business”, concluded Dioum.

Prior to joining MTN, Andrew was involved in a number of start-ups. This includes a niche credit risk solutions consultancy, which was successful in assisting several start-ups in South Africa (SA), as well as an e-commerce and digital credit provider and numerous Fintech/ Finserv businesses throughout South Africa, Africa, and Asia.

We congratulate Andrew and wish him the very best in his new role.