The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Ghana, Serame Taukobong, has dumped the country’s leading telecom industry giant for General Electric (GE), an American multinational.
Impeccable sources close to African Eye News.com say Mr. Taukobong is going to take up a lucrative role at the Commercial Division of GE Ghana.
His resignation from the MTN Group has come as a surprise to staff of the Africa’s leading telecom firm, which operates in over 20 countries.
Mr. Taukobong, who was appointed CEO of MTN Ghana in July, 2013, before his departure this week, had put in place pragmatic measures which will enable the telecom service provider to maintain the number one position in Ghana’s competitive telecom industry.
Although officials of MTN are tight-lip about the South African resignation, the newspaper gathered that dwindling revenue, and happenings at the group influenced his bold decision.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Taukobong was the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN South Africa.
He was appointed Group Marketing and Sales Executive for MTN International in 2002, after moving from M-Net Channels, where he was Marketing Director.
Two years after joining MTN, he became the Chief Operations Officer at MTN Uganda.
In 2006, he assumed the role of Sales and Distribution Executive at MTN Irancell, where, among his achievements, he established a distribution footprint of more than 7,000 points of presence.
He returned to MTN Group as Executive for Global Brand and Sponsorships in 2007. Mr. Taukobong became the CMO of MTN SA in 2009, responsible for revenue generation, product innovation, customer development, retention & management, company strategic development, company-wide business development, overall brand communication, sponsorship and PR and strategic revenue development.
Meanwhile, MTN has appointed Ebenezer Asante as the new CEO of MTN Ghana.
Prior to his appointment, Ebenezer Asante was the CEO of MTN Rwanda.
Mr. Asante’s appointment takes effect today, May 15.This is the first time a Ghanaian has been put in-charge of MTN Ghana.
Before joining MTN in 2008, Ebenezer Asante worked for 13 years with Unilever Ghana, where he held various positions, including serving as Country Manager for Zambia in 2005, and Customer Development Director, responsible for sales and customer development strategy and execution in 2006.
Ebenezer Asante holds a BA degree (Hons) in Economics and Statistics from the University of Ghana, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Henley Management College, and was part of MTN’s Global Advancement Programme (GAP) in 2010.
Ebenezer will be overseeing a subscriber base of about 14.2 million, as compared with the 3.9 million he supervised in Rwanda.
Ghana is MTN’s fourth-biggest market, in terms of subscriber numbers, after Nigeria, South Africa and Iran.
African Eye News
