MTN Group fills three senior roles entirely from within as Ambition 2030 takes shape

MTN Group has announced three leadership appointments across its group executive committee and two country operations, filling every role from its existing bench at a moment when the continent’s largest telecom operator is working to prove the depth of its internal talent pipeline.

Mitwa Ng’ambi, currently the chief executive of MTN Côte d’Ivoire, will move into the Group Chief People and Culture Officer role, joining the Group Executive Committee no later than 1 September 2026. The appointment is timed to an impending retirement: Paul Norman, who has held the role, is stepping down later this year after nearly three decades with the company.

The move sets off a chain of internal succession. Ng’ambi will be succeeded as MTN Côte d’Ivoire chief executive by Abbad Reda, who is currently running MTN Zambia. Reda, in turn, will be replaced in Zambia by Larry Annetts, whose most recent role was as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Commercial Officer seconded to Irancell.

MTN Group President and Chief Executive Ralph Mupita framed the appointments explicitly as a succession planning story. “Making these appointments from internal candidates talks to the depth of talent we have within the Group, and the effectiveness of our succession planning processes,” the company said.

The appointments come shortly after MTN adopted a refreshed five-year strategy it calls “Ambition 2030”, which is built around extending digital and financial inclusion across Africa.

This is not the group’s first strategy cycle — MTN ran a similar internal playbook under its previous Ambition 2025 framework, which included a leadership swap between MTN Rwanda and MTN South Sudan last year. The consistent pattern across both cycles: whenever a senior vacancy opens, MTN reaches inward

Who’s moving where

Ng’ambi is not new to this kind of lateral move within the MTN system. When Techpoint Africa first reported her entry into the MTN network in 2019, she was moving from Airtel Tigo Ghana to become CEO of MTN Rwanda — herself a replacement for an outgoing leader.

Since then, she has led MTN Cameroon and, most recently, MTN Côte d’Ivoire. In total, she brings more than 15 years of leadership experience in African telecoms, spanning Zambia, Benin, Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. The Group people and culture brief puts her on the Executive Committee for the first time

Reda brings a similarly varied record to the Côte d’Ivoire posting. Beyond his tenure as MTN Zambia chief executive, which began in May 2023, he has held senior positions at MTN Afghanistan, MTN Liberia and MTN Ghana. MTN describes him as a seasoned executive with a track record for delivering market share, revenue, and profit growth, and notes his focus on improving customer experience.

Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer

Techpoint Digest

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For Annetts, the Zambia appointment is a return to operating company leadership after a commercial role at Irancell. His career inside MTN spans more than 29 years, taking in stints at MTN South Africa and MTN Nigeria, where he is credited with driving commercial growth, digital transformation and product innovation.

All three appointments take effect no later than 1 September 2026