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MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile network operator, today announces the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Dooka, Africa’s first business-to-business (B2B) marketplace to automate the sourcing process of MTN’s long tail of indirect local spending.

The partnership promises a paradigm shift in corporate procurement on the continent, bringing the ease of consumer marketplace buying to companies across Africa. Dooka will boost MTN’s local supplier development initiatives, giving local suppliers – including women-owned businesses – the opportunity to sell to other customers on the platform, while providing MTN and other businesses with transparency in pricing and greater efficiencies.

“Our new relationship with Dooka is hugely exciting and brings efficiencies to every level of the supply chain. It stands to transform the way businesses operate across Africa,” says Dirk Karl, MTN Group Executive: Global Sourcing and Supply Chain. “It fits with our strategic priority to create shared value, a key component of which is greater localisation.”

Dooka CEO Toby Sparrow says it is a chance to revolutionise the supply chain: “Together with MTN, we can demonstrate that the right tools enable corporations to create jobs and support development and growth through good procurement. Dooka represents a new way to connect buyers and sellers across every industry. We are levelling the playing field so businesses large and small across Africa can transact as easily as if shopping at home and using the latest digital technologies.”

The partnership is a revenue-sharing one, which requires no capex commitment nor licence cost for its use by MTN, Dooka’s anchor client. There will also be no service fees for MTN suppliers until at least January 2024.

Committed to play our part in creating shared value and securing a Net Zero future, MTN Group today issued our first Climate Report aligned to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.

Climate change presents a unique vehicle to unlock innovative opportunities for green industrialization and job creation critical in contributing towards Africa’s progress. At MTN, we are committed to achieve Net Zero by 2040. Taking climate action is an imperative to secure the socioeconomic development of our markets.

The TCFD guides companies in preparing climate-related disclosures to ensure consistency and alignment among organisations across the globe. MTN’s first TCFD-aligned report demonstrates the actions we are taking to build a more resilient financial system through climate-related disclosures.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report lists the top three threats in the medium and long term as failure to act on climate; extreme weather; and biodiversity loss. The world is already experiencing record heat waves and droughts, heavy rain and flooding. In April 2022, heavy storms in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa led to the loss of lives, destroyed thousands of homes and caused widespread infrastructure damage and power outages, also affecting MTN’s sites.

At MTN, we recognise that climate change has the potential to impact our business, as well as the communities we serve. We are taking action now to evaluate these risks, guided by the TCFD framework as a means of continuously creating shared value for our stakeholders.

We are also working to understand the potential opportunities in transitioning to a low-carbon economy and adopting clean energy technologies. We have already started integrating electric vehicles, solar and wind energy, and battery storage into our operations.

In 2021, we launched our Project Zero to leverage the latest technologies and service partnerships to deliver greater energy efficiency, lower our carbon emissions, reduce risks and improve our cost controls. This was followed by our commitment in February 2022 to support the recommendations of the TCFD.

We are pleased with the progress we have made so far, but there is still much work to be done. No company can do it alone, and we intend to use our influence, technology and reach to inspire and enable wider action to tackle the risks and opportunities presented by climate change to the benefit of our customers, and our stakeholders.

To view the report: https://bit.ly/3L6GIoV

MTN Group this week hosted MTN Nigeria’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee in Johannesburg for a strategy retreat during which the leadership of the Group’s largest subsidiary reflected on its strategic priorities for the next three years.

The three-day working visit – hosted by MTN Group Chairman Mcebisi Jonas and MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita – brought together for the first time in South Africa the boards and executive management teams of MTN Nigeria and MTN Group. The MTN Nigeria delegation was led by Chairman Ernest Ndukwe and CEO Karl Toriola.

During the trip, MTN Group and MTN South Africa held engagements attended by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor and Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, as well as by Nigeria’s High Commissioner Muhammad Haruna Manta.

“Strong bi-national relationships between Nigeria and South Africa are critical for Africa’s progress,” said Jonas. “As MTN, we appreciate that our own progress cannot happen without the two nations building stronger and stronger ties and providing leadership to the continent.”

Mupita said MTN Nigeria represented approximately 40% of the value of MTN Group, and as such its achievements were key to the success of the Group: “As MTN Group, we are committed to supporting the business and ensuring that its success goes beyond just strong operational and financial performance, but also represents success for all stakeholders.”

“Initiatives such as extending rural broadband, driving financial inclusion from MTN Nigeria’s Payment Services Banking licence and ensuring further localisations remain critical for success and sustainability,” he added.

Jonas said MTN Nigeria was in good hands under the direction of Chairman Ndukwe and CEO Toriola. The MTN Nigeria leadership said that among the many discussions held in Johannesburg were how to navigate the unprecedented macro challenges that businesses across the world faced, as well as looking for the opportunities that these changes provided.

The MTN Nigeria leadership’s visit follows that of MTN Group’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee to Lagos in early July, when they held their own strategy retreat.

One of the four strategic priorities of MTN’s Ambition 2025 is to ‘create shared value’. Regularly engaging with our key stakeholders is essential for us to deliver on this priority.

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.