CEO East Africa Magazine has reliably learnt that seasoned MTN Group fintech executive Phrase Lubega is set to become the next Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MTN Mobile Money Uganda Ltd (MTN MoMo Uganda), replacing Richard Yego, who left at the end of February 2026.
Sarah Bateta Okwii, the CFO of the fintech, has been the interim CEO since then.
Multiple highly placed sources familiar with the process told CEO East Africa Magazine that Lubega has already successfully gone through the interview process and is now awaiting final regulatory clearance before his appointment can be formally announced.
“Depending on when the regulatory approvals are cleared, he is set to join MTN MoMo Uganda sometime in June,” one source said.
“The announcement could be made anytime,” the source added.
Because MTN MoMo Uganda operates as a regulated financial services institution under the oversight of the Bank of Uganda, the appointment of its substantive chief executive requires regulatory approval before it can officially take effect.
Uganda’s Most Systemically Important Fintechs
If confirmed, Lubega would take charge of what is widely regarded as perhaps Uganda’s most significant and systemically important fintech platform — a business that has evolved far beyond traditional telecom mobile money services into a critical pillar of Uganda’s digital financial infrastructure.
Today, MTN MoMo sits at the centre of Uganda’s digital payments, mobile commerce, remittances, merchant payments, savings, and digital lending ecosystem, serving millions of individuals, households, merchants, and enterprises across the country.
The scale of the platform is immense.
By the end of 2025, MTN MoMo had grown its subscriber base to 14.7 million users, supported by more than 241,000 agents and nearly 115,000 merchants nationwide. During the year, customers transacted approximately UGX 195.5 trillion across 5 billion transactions on the platform — cementing MTN MoMo’s position as one of Uganda’s most important financial and payments infrastructures.
Financially, the fintech business has become a powerhouse in its own right.
MTN MoMo generated UGX 1.2 trillion in revenue in 2025, up 20.2% year-on-year, while profit after tax climbed 23.5% to UGX 308.9 billion. Total assets rose to UGX 1.8 trillion, while customer balances held in trust accounts reached approximately UGX 1.47 trillion. The company also disbursed UGX 2.7 trillion in loans during the year and contributed UGX 553.1 billion in direct and indirect taxes to the Ugandan economy.
The scale becomes even clearer when compared to its closest competitor, Airtel Money Uganda.
In 2025, Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda reported revenue of UGX 1.02 trillion, profit after tax of UGX 334.1 billion, customer wallet balances of UGX 943.6 billion, and total assets of UGX 1.16 trillion.
While Airtel Money remains a formidable player in Uganda’s fintech sector, MTN MoMo maintains a substantial lead in overall ecosystem scale, transaction values, customer balances, agent footprint, merchant network, and total assets — reinforcing its position as the country’s dominant mobile money and digital payments platform.
The fintech subsidiary is also increasingly becoming one of MTN Uganda’s most important earnings engines.
Based on parent company MTN Uganda’s approximately UGX 3.6 trillion revenue base in 2025, MTN MoMo Uganda’s UGX 1.2 trillion revenue contribution means the fintech subsidiary now accounts for roughly 33% of the group’s total revenues — underscoring how mobile money has evolved from a telecom support service into one of MTN Uganda’s most important strategic and commercial pillars.
Leading MTN MoMo Through Transition
Lubega assumes leadership at one of the most strategically consequential moments in MTN MoMo and MTN Uganda’s history.
The company is currently undergoing a major structural transition as MTN Group advances plans to formally separate and independently scale its fintech operations away from the core telecommunications business — a process still subject to regulatory approvals, no-objections, and compliance requirements.
Industry analysts say the separation reflects MTN Group’s wider ambition to unlock greater operational focus, institutional independence, valuation upside, and long-term investor value from its rapidly growing fintech operations across Africa.
If confirmed, Lubega would bring to the role one of the deepest telecom and fintech transformation résumés in the broader MTN ecosystem, with nearly three decades of experience spanning technology systems, enterprise architecture, digital financial services, commercial strategy, governance, distribution, and pan-African fintech operations.
Currently serving as Group Executive: Commercial Operations at MTN Group Fintech in South Africa, Lubega has been responsible for defining and executing commercial, distribution, marketing, and fintech growth strategies across MTN Group’s extensive African footprint.
His mandate has included overseeing the implementation of digital financial services projects across multiple markets and supporting MTN’s broader ambition of scaling fintech into one of the group’s most important growth verticals.
In recent years, he has also served as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of MTN operating companies in Congo Brazzaville, Benin, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau, further deepening his governance and regional leadership credentials.
Notably, Lubega also served as Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB) in Nigeria between July 2024 and January 2026, placing him at the centre of one of MTN Group’s most strategically important fintech markets.
A Telecom Systems Engineer turned Pan-African Fintech Strategist
Industry observers say his expected appointment signals MTN’s intention to deepen institutional maturity, operational scale, regulatory alignment, and commercial sophistication at MTN MoMo Uganda as the fintech industry enters a more complex and heavily regulated era.
Unlike many fintech executives who rose through purely commercial or banking backgrounds, Lubega’s career foundation was deeply technical.
A graduate of Makerere University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, Electronics and Mathematics, he began his telecom career at Celtel Uganda in 1998 as a Prepay and Tariff Analyst before joining MTN Uganda in 1999.
Over the years, he steadily rose through the ranks in billing systems management, systems development, enterprise applications, and IT leadership before becoming Chief Information Officer at MTN Uganda in 2009.
His transition into mobile financial services leadership began in 2013 when he was appointed General Manager Mobile Money at MTN Uganda — making him one of the early executives who helped shape Uganda’s mobile money ecosystem during its formative years. He later served as General Manager Sales and Distribution between 2013 and 2015 before becoming General Manager Mobile Financial Services from 2015 to 2017, where he played a key role in expanding digital financial services, agent network growth, ecosystem development, and mobile money commercialisation.
After a brief stint as an independent digital financial services consultant in 2017, Lubega moved into MTN Group structures in South Africa, where his responsibilities expanded from country-level execution to continental fintech strategy and commercialisation.
Strong Ties to MTN Group Fintech Leadership
That wider pan-African exposure is expected to become one of his biggest strategic advantages.
After entering the MTN Group, Lubega has spent the better part of the last decade operating across MTN Group’s fintech ecosystem on the African continent, steadily evolving from a country-level mobile money executive into one of the group’s senior fintech strategists.
Between 2018 and 2021, he served as General Manager, MFS Commercial and Go-to-Market at MTN Group, helping drive commercialisation and digital financial services strategy across multiple African markets.
In July 2021, he was elevated to Group Executive: Commercial Operations at MTN Group Fintech in South Africa, where he has since been responsible for defining commercial, distribution, marketing, and growth strategies across MTN’s fintech footprint on the continent.
His continental exposure has also extended into governance and executive leadership across several MTN operating companies. Since 2021, he has served as a Non-Executive Director at MTN Congo in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, and MTN Benin in Cotonou, Benin, while also previously serving on the boards of MTN Guinea in Conakry and MTN Guinea-Bissau in Bissau.
Most recently, between July 2024 and January 2026, Lubega served as Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MoMo Payment Service Bank in Nigeria — one of MTN Group’s most strategically important fintech markets on the continent.
Sources familiar with MTN Group’s fintech operations say Lubega is also considered a close ally of MTN Group Fintech CEO Serigne Dioum, under whom he has worked closely over recent years as MTN accelerated efforts to scale fintech into one of the group’s most important long-term growth engines.
That relationship could potentially strengthen strategic alignment between MTN MoMo Uganda and MTN Group Fintech’s broader continental ambitions at a time when the group is increasingly positioning digital financial services at the centre of its future growth strategy.
His expected return to Uganda also comes at a time when the fintech sector is experiencing intensified competition from telecom rivals, banks, agent banking operators, and emerging digital financial services players, even as regulators continue tightening oversight around interoperability, anti-money laundering compliance, consumer protection, cybersecurity, and digital payments governance.
