MTN appoints new Ghana CEO, group CCO

Pan-African operator MTN has announced some changes to its executives, with MTN Ghana CEO Selorm Adadevoh becoming Group Chief Commercial Officer (GCCO) and Stephen Blewett taking over the top job at MTN Ghana.

MTN said that Jens Schulte-Bockum will step down from his role as Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO) when his fixed-term contract ends on March 31, 2024, and Adadevoh will take over in the new GCCO role on April 1, 2024.

"Although [Adadevoh's] new designation has been amended to better align with the Group Operating Model, he will join the Group Exco on the effective date and assume all of [Schulte-Bockum's] executive responsibilities in an orderly handover and transition process to be carried out over the next few months," MTN said in a statement.

Adadevoh joined MTN in 2018 as MTN Ghana CEO. The telco said he brings extensive experience to his new group role.

Before MTN Ghana, he held key positions within the Digicel Group, including CEO, COO and global director for mobile financial services (MFS). Before that, he held various senior positions at Millicom/Tigo in Ghana including roles as CCO, head of MFS and head of product innovation.

MTN said that Schulte-Bockum worked at MTN for seven years and highlighted the vital role he played in scaling MTN's core connectivity business across home, fiber, enterprise and network-as-a-service (NaaS).

He also helped accelerate the group's digital services platforms, in particular the Ayoba super app and API marketplace Chenosis.

Schulte-Bockum will continue to serve as a non-executive director on the boards of MTN South Africa, MTN Nigeria and Bayobab (formerly MTN GlobalConnect).

Stephen Blewett moves to MTN Ghana

Stephen Blewett will take over the CEO role at MTN Ghana in April 2024.

Blewett re-joined MTN in July 2023 as the operations executive for markets, with executive responsibility for the smaller West and Central Africa (WECA) markets and to provide broader operations support to the senior VP for markets across the overall WECA region.

Before re-joining MTN this year Blewett was the COO at Digicel. Prior to that, he had spent seven years within the MTN Group in CEO roles for MTN Benin and then MTN Cameroon.

He currently sits on various boards within the WECA market operating companies, serving on some as chairman.

Stephen Blewett will become MTN Ghana CEO in April 2024. (Source: MTN Group)

MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita said he was pleased to be able to make strong internal appointments within the Group to fill these key roles.

In the past, MTN has also appointed executive roles from within and moved CEOs between markets including a new CEO for Zambia in April 2023 and new leaders in Rwanda, Cameroon and Uganda in July 2022.

Related posts:

*Top image is of Selorm Adadevoh who will become MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer in April 2023. (Source: MTN Group)

— Paula Gilbert, Editor, Connecting Africa