Mapula Bodibe, incoming MTN Rwanda CEO.

MTN has announced that its CEO leading its Rwanda operation, Mitwa Ng’ambi, will move to the position of CEO of MTN Cameroon effective 1 September 2022. Ng’ambi will be replaced by MTN South Africa’s Chief Consumer Officer Mapula Bodibe. Based on MTN Rwanda’s half year results for the period ended 30 June 2022, Ng’ambi is poised to leave her position on a high note.

In a statement of MTN Rwanda’s half year results for the period ended 30 June 2022, the company said Ng’ambi has been with MTN Rwanda since 2019 and has led the organisation through a number of significant milestones, “most notable being the listing of MTN Rwanda on the Rwanda Stock Exchange, the ten-year renewal of the Company’s operating license, the establishment of the country’s first FinTech subsidiary - Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd, as well as smartphone campaign, #ConnectRwanda.”

The operator added that incoming MTN Rwanda CEO has extensive experience within the MTN Group.

“In a career spanning more than 15 years with the MTN Group, she has held various senior management roles including Chief Marketing Officer at MTN Uganda, Executive for the Consumer Business and General Manager for Consumer Marketing at MTN South Africa. Bodibe brings to the business, a strong background in commercial strategy, consumer marketing, customer strategy, brand management and communications, product management and customer analytics,” the company stated.

Based on the results, Ng’ambi is poised to leave her position on a high note.

As is the case with MTN’s other African operations, especially in Nigeria and Zambia, MTN Rwanda has had to face local and global inflationary pressures and strained global supply chains, including increased commodity and fuel prices.

However, as MTN Rwanda highlighted, the company did increase mobile subscribers by 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) to 6.6 million, as well as active data subscribers by 23.9% YoY to 2.2 million, and also mobile money (MoMo) subscribers by 9.1% YoY to 3.9 million.

Additionally, its service revenue increased by 21.5% to Rwf 105.1 billion, with growth of Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) by 17.8% to Rwf 52.5-billion, with an EBITDA margin of 49.3%.

Profit after Tax (PAT) decreased by 31.5% to Rwf 9.7 billion, as the business continues to amortise its operating license that was renewed in 2021.

Ng’amb said, “We are pleased with the company’s performance thus far and are optimistic, albeit cautiously due to the macroeconomic outlook, the ongoing execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy will continue to yield positive results.”

MTN Rwanda said investment in its network and platforms remains a priority, specifically as it looks to leverage Fintech growth and drive its Ambition 2025 strategy.

The company stated, “The Ministry of Finance revised the 2022 growth forecast downwards to 6%, from 7.2%. Inflation in the country reached 16.1% in June 2022, 16pp higher than a year ago – with even higher increases observed in fuel and food commodities. Inflation is expected to rise further in the remainder of the year as macroeconomic pressures persist. This may impact the business into H2, along with the effects of the downward revision to local interconnect tariffs implemented in May 2022 that have resulted in a slight reduction in industry pricing on voice.”