Beginning today, April 1, 2024, Stephen Blewett is the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana.
He takes over from Selorm Adadevoh, who has been appointed as the Chief Commercial Officer of the MTN Group.
Selorm was the first outsider to become MTN Ghana CEO. Ironically, he was the longest serving CEO in the history of the company, having held the position for almost six years.
Like other CEOs before Selorm, Stephen Blewett was already in the MTN family as the Operations Executive, Markets before his appoint to the Ghana CEO role.
He re-joined MTN in July 2023 as the Operations Executive for Markets, with executive responsibility for the Group’s smaller West and Central Africa (WECA) markets, and for providing broader operations support across that region to the Group’s Senior Vice President for Markets.
Prior to that, he was the Chief Operating Officer of Digicel, where Selorm also worked as CEO and left an indelible mark as “The Transformer”.
Blewett also spent seven years at MTN in the role of CEO for MTN Benin and then MTN Cameroon.
“We welcome Stephen into the MTN Ghana family and look forward to working with him to move the company forward to achieve our Ambition 2025 strategy and beyond,” Chairman of the Board of MTN Ghana, Ishmael Yamson said.
Speaking of Ishmael Yamson, he also expressed mixed feelings for Selorm’s departure, saying that he was sad that such a great guy was leaving MTN Ghana, but he was also proud of him for having been given a bigger role at the Group level.
Mr. Yamson said as board chair, he has worked with at least six MTN Ghana CEOs, and he can testify that Selorm was exceptional.
How exceptional was Selorm? – in six years he made eight times the revenue, 12 times the profit and paid 18 times the last tax that was paid the year before he took over.
During his tenure, MTN Ghana won at least 276 industry, business, CSR, project managements, Fintech, HR and national awards. Personally, Selorm won top awards several times over the period.
Selorm also oversaw a very success and multiple-record-breaking IPO in Ghana. But the overwhelming success of MTN Ghana, particularly under Selorm, also meant he saw the declaration of MTN Ghana as a significant market power (SMP), which means regulatory measures have been and are being put in place to clip MTN’s wings and prevent it from becoming a monopoly.
So, Stephen Blewett steps into very big, comfortable and uncomfortable shoes, all related to the size and value of MTN Ghana, and he will definitely be expected to take MTN Ghana to the next level, even in the face of the regulatory headwinds.
