MTN Ghana CEO Ebenezer Asante has been announced as the new Vice President (VP) of MTN Group's altered Southern & East Africa and Ghana (SEAGHA) Region starting on 01 October 2017.

A statement from the mobile network operator reveals that the new SEAGHA Region will comprise the telco's mobile operations in Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, South Sudan, Botswana and Swaziland, as well as MTN ISPs in Kenya, Namibia and Botswana.

Asante will leave a vacancy in his current position as CEO of MTN Ghana, a role he held for just over two years.

Rob Shuter, MTN Group President and CEO has lauded the appointment of Asante, whose experience before MTN includes 13 years at consumer goods company Unilever as Managing Director for Zambia and Customer Development Director.

"I am very pleased for Ebenezer; he is a great talent and business leader. His appointment to this new role not only speaks to our strong bench strength, but the pool of talent we have within MTN. Ebenezer will bring great value to the Group leadership team, to the benefit of our people and customers across the MTN footprint," said Shuter.

The role of VP for the SEAGHA Region became vacant when Godfrey Motsa was appointed CEO of MTN South Africa in nearly seven months ago. Karl Toriola, VP for West and Central Africa (WECA) Region, has been managing the portfolio of operations in what was known as the SEA region in an acting capacity until the disclosure of Asante's appointment today.

MTN says the inclusion of Ghana within SEA to SEAGHA re-balances the workload across MTN Group's regional structures and will further optimise the oversight responsibilities of Regional VPs in the Group.

Asante reports directly to the Group President and CEO is now a member of the MTN Group's Executive Committee. MTN also notes that the new VP is the reigning GITT CEO of the Year in Ghana and the CIMG Marketing Man of the year 2017.

MTN Group interim results up to 30 June 2017 show that MTN Ghana under Asante's leadership joined MTN Uganda, MTN Ghana and MTN Ivory Coast in contributing positively to the Group's top-line growth.

MTN Group revenue in constant currency grew by 6,7% to R64 315 million overall in the six months to June with Ghana registering a 22,6% rise in total revenue in that market alone.

Subscriber numbers for MTN Ghana have however declined by 10,3% to 17,3 million.

MTN Ghana is currently working with regulators on a transaction to increase Ghanaian ownership of MTN Ghana shares. MTN has revealed that they expect to complete this process by the end of 2017.