This was announced at the MTN Group Leadership Gathering held in South Africa involving senior management from operating companies in the 22 different companies that make up the MTN Group. CEOs of the various operating companies and MTN Group leadership voted Mr. Asante as the CEO who best displayed the MTN Global Leader Profile.

The MTN Global Leader is one who is focused on the Big Picture and therefore provides vision and strategy, demonstrates problem solving capability and delivers value. He is an emotionally intelligent person who drives culture and change, builds stakeholder relationships and achieves both financial and non-financial results. He is also an exceptional leader who understands self, is emotionally matured, shows humility and compassion, exemplifies ethics and integrity and communicates effectively.

In his brief remarks after receiving the award, Mr Ebenezer Asante expressed his appreciation to his fellow leaders and the MTN Group for the recognition and the bigger challenge thrown at him to excel in his duties. He said, “I am grateful to MTN for the opportunity it gave me to serve in Rwanda and Ghana as CEO and also inculcating its values of Leadership, Innovation, Relationship, Integrity and Can-Do which have helped me to reach this level of my career”.

“I also appreciate the Executive Committee and all staff in MTN Ghana who bought into the vision I shared for the Ghana Opco and have therefore supported with various implementation strategies to help MTN Ghana maintain its leadership in mobile voice, data and Mobile Money in Ghana’s telecoms market. We are looking ahead to a future of unlimited opportunities through the introduction of relevant products and services as we pursue the MTN Group vision “to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to our customers.”

Ebenezer Asante was appointed MTN Ghana CEO in July 2015 as the first Ghanaian to occupy the position. He describes himself as the Chief Customer Champion of MTN and has a passion for ensuring that customers have the best experience on the network. He is also a Trade Expert, Business Strategist and Leadership Coach.

In September 2013, he was appointed CEO of MTN Rwanda where he served for approximately two years. During his tenure as CEO, Mr. Asante led the MTN Rwanda Team to a vision of Inclusive Digital Society in Rwanda that spurred individual and national development.

Mr. Asante joined MTN in 2008 as Sales and Distribution (S&D) Executive for MTN Ghana and is credited for the organization of wide sales and distribution strategy and execution that resulted in the organizations viability and sustainability. He is also credited for bringing about dramatic expansion of the sales force of MTN. He introduced Connect shops and was instrumental in establishing a corporate business unit. It was during his tenure as S&D Executive that MTN Ghana’s subscribers grew from 3.9 million in January 2008 to 12 million in 2013. He led the MTN Ghana team to bid for and win the 800 MHz spectrum for 4G LTE which was auctioned by the National Communication Authority in 2015, making MTN Ghana the first mobile network operator to operate 4G services in Ghana.

The Group Leadership Gathering is an annual event which sees the 300 most senior leaders from across MTN’s footprint come together to align on the company’s strategic priorities for the future. The objectives were to gain strategic clarity of the company’s ambitions, gather crucial insights from experts to take the business forward, identify key actions for success and commit to MTN’s future direction.