The South Africa-based telecommunications group MTN announced yesterday that it is restructuring its operations and its management, with a view to strengthening operational oversight, leadership, governance and regulatory compliance across its 22 markets in Africa and the Middle East. Under the corporate reorganisation the Group will restructure its operations into three regions – namely West and Central Africa (WECA), South and East Africa (SEA), and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The Johannesburg-based operator says it has also made a number of senior appointments to support this new operating setup. Effective 1 December 2015 Jyoti Desai assumed the new position of Group COO. Based in Johannesburg, she reports to the Executive Chairman, Phuthuma Nhleko, MTN said in a press release. Further, the company has appointed two regional vice presidents for WECA (Karl Toriola) and MENA (Ismail Jaroudi); the VP for SEA will be announced soon. Also reporting to the chairman is the new Group Executive for M&A, Matthew Odgers.
Commenting on the announcements, Phuthuma Nhleko said: ‘This revised structure and strengthened leadership will improve operational oversight and increase management capacity. This will enable MTN to continue to realise its strategy and vision, while also ensuring we achieve high governance standards and robust risk mitigation.’ With the financial year closing on 31 December 2015, the MTN Group will report its FY2015 results in line with the former structure – namely for MTN Nigeria, MTN South Africa, Large Operating Companies and Small Operating Companies.