EVERYWHERE YOU GO: Meet Senior Ugandan Executives doing our country proud within the MTN Group

Developing home-grown talent is a great achievement for many companies, but being able to seamlessly transfer those skills across the various markets is a dream come true for any multinational. And MTN, is without a doubt enjoying the best of both worlds as it has not only successfully developed local talent in its markets but has been able to successfully reallocate its resources across its multiple markets.

With thirteen Ugandans currently holding fort back home, at the helm of the country’s largest company- MTN Uganda, the telco ‘exported’ eight other Ugandans MTN’s various markets in Africa and the Middle East, where they, too are holding outstanding executive positions. Two others, although based in Uganda, also work for the MTN Group.  

Early this year, MTN Group appointed Gordian Kyomukama, the Chief Executive Officer for MTN South Sudan.

Although this was in many ways a significant appointment for Kyomukama, it was even more significant for MTN Uganda, where he honed his management skills.

The Malaysia and Germany trained electrical engineer was one of Uganda’s pioneer telecom engineers. Having started his Telecom Engineering career at Uganda Telecom (UTL) and later Celtel (now Airtel Uganda), Kyomukama was head-hunted by the South Africa headquartered MTN Uganda, in the early 2000s.

At MTN, he rose through the ranks and was later seconded by the MTN Group as an expatriate to its Rwanda, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Liberia operations where he rose to the position of Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO) role before returning to Uganda in a similar capacity.

Gordian Kyomukama (left), the Chief Executive Officer for MTN South Sudan and Phillip Besiimire, currently the Chief Officer, Sales, Distribution and Regional Operations, at the MTN Group are some of the highest-ranking Ugandans, within the MTN Group.

Between February and May 2019, Gordian served as Acting Chief Executive Officer for MTN Uganda, a job he did so well. It was after this sterling job at MTN Uganda, that Gordian was appointed as the MTN South Sudan CEO, effective 21 January 2020.

Although Gordian is probably the highest-ranking Ugandan within the MTN Group ranks today, he is not the first Ugandan to rise to that level.

Between February 2013 and July 2017 Philip Besiimire, another Ugandan served as the Chief Executive Officer of MTN South Sudan, an assignment he took on from MTN Zambia where he was Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to that, Besiimire had served in the similar capacity of Chief Marketing Officer for MTN Swaziland (now MTN Eswatini, and in fact between January and September 2010, Besiimire doubled as the Acting Chief Executive Officer at MTN Eswatini.

Besiimire, who graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences and also holds a Masters of Business Administration with a Marketing specialty from the Nederlands Business School in Netherlands, started his career back home at MTN Uganda as a Senior Manager Consumer Marketing.

However, following his outstanding role at MTN South Sudan, Besiimire went back to the MTN Group to take up the executive Regional Operations role for nearly two years, before being appointed Chief Officer, Sales, Distribution and Regional Operations, a position he has held since July 2019.

In an interview with CEO East Africa magazine, Besiimire acknowledged that working in different countries had opened up his mind; helping him to gain a better understanding of global markets while giving him a taste of how organizations operate internationally.

“It has given me the chance to adapt to new and unfamiliar situations. This has been a significant factor in growing my confidence and strengthening my ability to adjust to diverse situations. By interacting and working with people from other countries, it has increased my cultural awareness, tolerance and cultural sensitivity,” Besiimire said.

In many ways, Gordian and Philip’s story tells the story of MTN- a company with a fierce can-do attitude. And that is the major ingredient behind the telco’s deliberate skills transfer programme that identifies and prepares its own people for greater roles within the group.

In a recent interview with CEO East Africa Magazine, Michael Sekadde, the MTN Uganda General Manager, Human Resources said that the company runs a deliberate succession planning and leadership development programme that proactively identifies top talented employees across the company for an accelerated talent development program.

“We put them on a talent development programme that creates personal development plans for each of them, building on their current competencies and future required capabilities. This is done over a period of time and often it involves formal training, on-the-job training, shadowing and secondment to other operations with the MTN Group as part of their development,” he said.

MTN Uganda General Manager, Human Resources, Michael Sekadde, says that MTN runs deliberate succession planning and leadership strategy that proactively identifies top talented employees across the company for an accelerated talent development program.

“The robust succession planning programme is empowering internal local talent to grow within the organization and within the MTN Group. For example, MTN Uganda currently has ‘exported’ 15 local staff across the MTN Group as expatriates to transfer skills and knowledge,” he says.

Nurturing highly skilled and exposed Ugandan executives

Other than Gordian and Phillip the other 6 expats include Alice Nakato Lwanga, a Consultant Company Secretary at MTN (Dubai) Limited since January 2018. Before her deployment in Dubai, Lwanga worked with MTN Uganda for close to 17 years as a Commercial Legal Advisor, Senior Manager Commercial Legal and Senior Manager Commercial and Company Secretary.

Another fine MTN Uganda ‘export’ to the world is Christopher Ssali, the Acting General Manager, FinTech at MTN Liberia. Before moving to Liberia, Christopher worked with MTN Uganda for over 10 years in various product development capacities especially in the Mobile Money and Value-Added Services (VAS) space. 

Other home-grown MTNers who have been ‘exported’ to foreign MTN markets include; Keith G. Tukei, the General Manager Sales & Distribution at the MTN Group in South Africa since 2018 and Emmanuel Zinabala, the Chief Financial Officer of MTN Guinea-Bissau for nearly 6 years. Godfrey Atatwebwa works as the Manager Pricing and Intelligence at the MTN Group headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, while Fred Kimbugwe, is the Senior Manager Finance and Service Delivery at the Group.

Although John Mark Sebunya, the Head of Fintech Architecture and Platforms as well as Dennis Joachim Nsubuga, the Senior Manager of the Project Management Office under Mobile Financial Services and Mark Sam Luswata, the Senior Manager, Mobile Financial Services Risk, work for the Group, they are all based in Uganda.   

While further commenting about the company’s skills transfer culture, Ssekadde said that: “As Uganda’s largest telecom company, we are proud to lead the way in not only providing an excellent work environment for our people but also playing a role in building a generation of highly skilled and exposed Ugandan executives,” Ssekadde concludes.

Ssekadde is happy that the Company’s skills transfer agenda has registered notable success to the extent that twelve out of the sixteen Company’s executive committee members are Ugandan, four of whom are women.