Customer focus, shared belief helps MTN remain South Africa’s top brand

MTN is encouraged to have maintained its position as South Africa’s most valuable brand in Brand Finance’s 2020 Top 50 South African Brands survey released on Wednesday, with a brand value of R49,4 billion.

We are pleased to be appearing at the top of the list again,” said MTN Group President and CEO Rob Shuter.  “But what is more important is that we’ve made progress year-on-year, in particular in the brand strength index scores.”

According to Brand Finance, MTN’s brand strength improved to AAA in 2020 from AAA- in 2019. This was a result of the group’s focus on improving the customer experience for its almost 260 million subscribers, as well as uniting its 19 000 employees around a shared belief, which is that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life.

“We have worked hard to make sure that our customers find that we are easy to do business with, that our propositions are tailormade, and that our network quality is really good,” said Shuter. “Inside MTN, we have focussed on connecting our people to the fact that what we do is worthwhile, and that we make a meaningful contribution to society. This is so important because our people are our brand ambassadors.”

He said the brand helped glue MTN employees together across 21 countries on two continents: “If we deliver a sense of personal ownership in the brand, then we start to have some of the improvements we’ve seen in the last few years, despite some difficult markets and some difficult events.”

In an increasingly competitive and dynamic market, MTN would not rest on its laurels and still had much work to do. “We really are just at the start of this. We are encouraged with the progress, but we are going to keep building the faith, and improving the experience,” Shuter said.

MTN Group announces new CEOs for MTN Cameroon and MTN Benin

MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of new chief executive officers for two of its West African operations, MTN Cameroon and MTN Benin. Stephen Blewett, the current CEO of MTN Benin, will take the helm at MTN Cameroon on 1 August 2020 when Uche Ofodile, the current CEO of MTN Liberia, will become the CEO of MTN Benin.

“I would like to congratulate Stephen and Uche on their appointments,” said MTN Group president and CEO Rob Shuter. “Both are renowned for harnessing the power of people to move businesses forward. This is evident in the significant improvements in employee engagement, as well as overall performance, at MTN’s operations in Benin and Liberia in the past few years.”

Karl Toriola, vice president for MTN’s West and Central Africa region, thanked Stephen and Uche for their commitment and contribution: “Under Stephen’s leadership, MTN Benin recorded double-digit revenue growth for three years running. Uche leaves a business with double-digit year-on-year revenue growth, enjoying a nine-point market share improvement against its competitor.”

Stephen has for five years led MTN Benin, an operation of 5,5 million subscribers. He replaces Hendrik Kasteel, who left the group in March. Since then, MTN Cameroon chief financial officer Ebenezer Bodylawson has been acting CEO, steering the operation of more than 10 million subscribers.

Uche joined MTN in 2018. Since then, she has repositioned MTN Liberia as a competitive player in the market and grown its customer base to 1,45 million. The group is in the process of appointing a new CEO for MTN Liberia and will make an announcement in this regard as soon as the process is finalised.

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