MTN Group has announced the appointment of Ebenezer Asante as Vice President (VP) of the expanded South& East Africa and Ghana (SEAGHA) Region, effective 1 October 2017.

The role became vacant when then VP, Godfrey Motsa, was appointed CEO of MTN South Africa. Karl Toriola, VP for West and Central Africa (WECA) Region, has been managing the portfolio of operations in the SEA region in an acting capacity.

The new SEAGHA Region will comprise the mobile operations in Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, South Sudan, Botswana and Swaziland as well as the MTN ISPs in Kenya, Namibia and Botswana.

“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,” says Rob Shuter, MTN Group President and CEO.

The inclusion of Ghana within SEA re-balances the workload across MTN Group’s regional structures, further optimising the oversight responsibilities of the regional VPs.

He is currently the CEO of MTN Ghana, a position he has held since July 2015. In his new role, he will report directly to the Group President and CEO, and joins the Group Executive Committee.

He began his journey with MTN in 2008, as Sales and Distribution Executive at MTN Ghana. He later moved to Rwanda as CEO. After two years in Rwanda, he returned to Ghana in 2015. Before joining MTN, he spent 13 years with Unilever, where he held various positions, including Managing Director for Zambia and Customer Development Director.

He holds a BA (Hons) Economics and Statistics degree from the University of Ghana, a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from Henley Management College. He was also part of MTN’s Global Advancement Programme (GAP) in 2010.

Mr Asante was recognised as the Best CEO in the MTN Group last year, and received a similar award at the 2016 AfricaCom Conference in Cape Town. He is also the reigning GITT CEO of the Year in Ghana and the CIMG Marketing Man of the year 2017.