Mulinge Sylvia, MTN Uganda’s new and first female CEO, takes office today

Mulinge Sylvia, MTN Uganda’s first female Chief Executive Officer, who was appointed in June 2022 has officially started work today.

Her tenure started on 1^st October, which was a Saturday.

She takes over from Andrew Bugembe the MTN Uganda CFO who has been in an acting capacity since August when Wim Vanhellepute left to take up his new assignment in West Africa as the MTN Group’s Chief Operations Executive, a newly created role, to oversee Liberia, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, and Congo-Brazzaville.

We do understand that Sylvia’s first assignment is a staff town hall meeting held at the company’s offices in Industrial Area where she is expected to highlight her priorities.

She inherits an MTN that is Uganda’s largest telecom and largest company by revenue. She, however, has to deal with a relentless Airtel Uganda, which although second in market share has been more profitable for over 5 years in a row.

Shareholders who have had a taste of some good dividends after MTN’s first year of listing will be anxious to see if she can keep their pockets happy.  

In an exit interview with CEO East Africa Magazine, Wim Vanhellepute who led MTN since July 2016 was optimistic about double-digit growth opportunities— 10-12% in the medium term, and said the company and the industry, in general, were yet to maximise the potential with mobile money as well as data.  

 “One of the key drivers is going to be Mobile Money- it is going to be a big part of our business. But also more important, is going to be data. According to our Q1 2022 figures, there was more growth from data than from mobile money. We announced a 35% growth in data compared to 20% for mobile money. This is large because Uganda is playing a catch-up game in data- both mobile and fixed data. Compared to markets like Tanzania and Kenya, the data market in Uganda was and is not growing as it should. When you compare MTN Uganda and our competitors, there is a similar dynamic, mobile money revenue outstrips data revenue, yet in most countries, the two are the same,” Wim told CEO East Africa Magazine.

Who is Sylvia Mulinge?

At her appointment, Ralph Mupita the MTN Group President and CEO described her as a “seasoned executive” who “brings with her a passion for transforming customers’ lives using technology.”

According to her LinkedIn profile, she is an all-around telecom expert who has spent nearly 15 years at Safaricom PLC, a USD15 billion out-of-Kenya telecom behemoth.

She rose from being the Prepaid Product Manager (February 2006 – November 2007) to become, the Head of Retail (November 2007- November 200); Head of Safaricom Business -Sales (August 2009-April 2011); General Manager, Enterprise Business (May 2011-March 2015); Director, Consumer Business (March 2015-October 2018) and finally Chief Consumer Business Officer since July 2021.

As a Chief Consumer Business Officer, she was responsible for commercial leadership of a unit that accounts for 85% of the company’s revenue- spanning mobile data, mobile voice, fixed data and digital services; -consumer value management; commercial planning and pricing; brand marketing & communications; brand experience and championing digital transformation among others.

Before Safaricom, she worked for Unilever Kenya, as the Brand Manager for Sunlight as well as the Regional Assistant, Brand Manager, for Laundry for Unilever South Africa.

She holds a University of Nairobi BSc- Food Science & Technology Degree.

She has attended several courses and professional programmes such as the IRG 100 Leadership Programme at the Institute for Real Growth in Amsterdam, the Netherlands as well as a Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching from The Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) in London. She has attended the Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures programme of the Harvard Business School as well as the Women Director’s Leadership Summit and The Effective Director programmes, both from the Strathmore Business School (SBS) in Nairobi Kenya.