After almost decade working with various companies in the Kinnevik Group, a key shareholder in Millicom, Roshi Motman joined Tigo Ghana as the first female chief executive officer (CEO) in Ghana's telecommunications industry on April 1, 2014.

Prior to Tigo Ghana, she held various roles ranging from product development and management; sales and customer operations in Swedish telecom company, Tele2. Roshi was also responsible for the development of mobile entertainment at Modern Times Group, MTG.

She studied Electrical Engineering and Business Development at Chalmers University in Göteborg, Sweden.

Millicom, which is headquartered in Luxembourg, operates in six African markets under the Tigo brand: Rwanda, Tanzania, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Senegal.

In July the emerging market telecoms and media firm announced that its African revenues grew by 14.6% year-on-year for the second quarter. The Group stated that the double-digit growth in the continent has been driven by regions like Chad, Ghana and Rwanda.

Being familiar with Millicom and having been witness to its steady performance, Roshi wanted to be a part of its success and believes earnestly in its global mission and renewed focus on Africa.

At the time Roshi took up the position as CEO, Tigo was reported to have secured 14.28% share of the country's voice market and just over four million subscribers. The country's National Communications Authority (NCA) has ranked Tigo as Ghana's third largest mobile network after MTN and Vodafone.

In September an unlimited music streaming service with instant access to 30 million songs was launched in the country.

In April, Arthur Bastings, Millicom's executive vice-president for Africa, was quoted as saying, "Roshi takes the helm as Tigo continues its journey of transformation as a digital lifestyle company. We are looking forward to benefiting from her track record of innovative and customer centric leadership."

Today, just over eight months since the move, Roshi has spoken about her strategy to entrench the Company, its service as well as her view of Ghana's telecommunication market.

An example

When Roshi took up the reins at Tigo Ghana she was said to have made history by becoming the first female CEO within the country's telecom industry.

She believes that the profile of ICT as a traditionally male-dominated industry is changing – and quickly, and there are now more opportunities for women. "I am excited that we finally have women at the top in this industry. It is important for young women to have role models, someone they can look up to or better still guide them in their careers. I had a female CEO role model and she made me believe that if she can do it I can do it. And that's what I like young women in Ghana and Africa to believe, if Roshi can, so can they."

Roshi was excited about the prospect of working in Africa and especially to work in Ghana, a region she says that is rich with potential, opportunity and talent.

However, there is no doubt about the fact that operators have to be on top of their game if they are to succeed in this market. "If you thought the Swedish market is competitive, wait till you get here," she quips.

According to Roshi the market in Africa is fiercely competitive and requires a great deal of innovation and creativity. "Data penetration is growing, increasingly matching revenue (with that of) mobile voice growth. The regulatory, economic and political landscape is also quite different. However just like any other part of the world, it is ultimately about building a world class business and managing people."

The team

It is people that formed the basis of her first task as CEO. She immediately reviewed her team and set about building and developing a winning group.

From the outset the game-plan has been to make the business more dynamic and responsive to customers.

This is the broader strategy Roshi wants to implement to reinforce the Company's ability to take on the five other operators in Ghana, with a specific view to leveraging increasing data penetration, improved 3G coverage and the introduction of low cost smartphones.

The CEO feels upbeat about the market and, more specifically, Tigo Ghana's value proposition to secure market share. "We have been in Ghana more than 20 years and we are here for the long haul. We continue to invest heavily in all areas including the network and our people. Our products and services are insights driven and in response to the needs of the market. This requires a lot of innovation, we recently launched Tigo Music, a first on the Ghanaian market and it was a resounding success."

Looking towards the future, Roshi says Ghana's telecommunication market has a clear direction defined by tower co-location by operators and a shift to encourage data growth.