MTN Group has announced that Karl Toriola, current vice president for the company’s West and Central Africa (WECA) region, has been appointed as MTN Nigeria CEO.

According to a statement released by the operator, Toriola will take over from Ferdi Moolman, who has served in the position for the past five years. The company says Moolman will return to South Africa, where he will assume the new role of Group Chief Risk officer.

Both appointments are effective from 1 March 2021, and both will remain members of the Group’s exco.

Moolman joined MTN in 2002 and has held several senior positions within the group in Nigeria and in Iran.

He has spent the past five years as the CEO of MTN Nigeria and, as its CFO prior to that.

“The management of enterprise-wide risk is integral to MTN’s growth strategy and Ferdi will bring extensive operational and financial experience to the role given his deep knowledge of the MTN Group, its markets and the telecoms sector. Ferdi will remain on the board of MTN Nigeria and will in due course be appointed to other material subsidiary boards given his new group responsibility,” MTN adds.

The operator continues that over the past five years, Toriola has overseen the steady progress of the operating companies in the region, notably the turnaround of MTN Ivory Coast and MTN Cameroon over the past two years.

MTN believes the WECA markets have made significant commercial and strategic strides, including the improvement of market share and the development of mobile financial services. The latter in particular is an important driver of the group’s medium- to long-term growth strategy.

“Since joining the group in 2006, Karl (48) has also held a number of senior operational roles at MTN, including chief technical officer of MTN Nigeria and CEO of MTN Cameroon. He is also a board member on a number of companies within the group, including MTN Nigeria. Karl’s successor as VP for WECA will be announced after the group strategy review is completed by the end of November 2020,” the company states.

MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita comments: “Karl brings extensive technical and commercial experience, as well as a deep understanding of the Nigeria market to the role. Karl started his MTN career in his home country at MTN Nigeria 14 years’ ago and has all the attributes necessary to lead this very important business into the future.”

He adds: “Ferdi has been an exemplary leader of MTN Nigeria and has put the business on a sound growth platform for the future. He brings significant strategic, financial and operational experience to the new group risk role, where we want to ensure that our enterprise-wide risk management systems are continuously strengthened and remain resilient as we drive our growth strategy.”

MTN Group owns 78,8% of MTN Nigeria, which is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and contributes around a third to the group’s service revenue.