October 3, 2023, marks the one-year anniversary of Sylvia Mulinge’s official appointment as Chief Executive Officer of MTN Uganda. Her hiring as the company’s first female CEO made headlines when it was announced a year ago.
The first few months of Sylvia’s employment have been productive. The double-digit annual growth rate that MTN Uganda enjoyed prior to her reign has been maintained during her tenure. The telecommunications company announced a 15% increase in revenue over the previous twelve months. The total revenue for the first half of 2022 was 1.1 billion UGX, and it is projected to skyrocket to 1.25 trillion UGX in the first half of 2023.
Additionally, the Kenyan’s reign has been defined by an increase in revenue from all sources throughout the entire period. When compared to the same time period in 2022, the first half of 2023 saw a huge increase of 22.1% in data revenue, which brought the total to UGX 290.2 billion, an amount that was significantly higher than UGX 237.6 billion. In a similar vein, revenue from fintech companies (MoMO) has shown robust growth, increasing by 18.6% to UGX 358.3 billion, as compared to UGX 302.1 billion in the first half of 2022.
Voice revenue, on the other hand, climbed as well, albeit at a slower rate, with a 9.4% growth, going from UGX 497.7 billion to UGX 544.7 billion over the course of the year.
The Profit After Tax (PAT) experienced a huge increase of 17.8%, going from UGX 193.6 billion to UGX 228.0 billion (a significant jump). This gain can be ascribed to a number of different sources, some of which include an increase in mobile subscribers of 11.2%, an increase in data subscribers of 21.4%, and an increase in active fintech users of 11.6%.
In July of 2023, she was also in charge of leading the ambitious development of the 5G network for the telco.
Read also: MTN launches 5G network in Uganda ahead of Airtel
Mulinge’s previous endeavours
After Wim Vanhelleputte’s tenure, Sylvia Mulinge assumed leadership of MTN Uganda. Mr. Wim Vanhelleputte has returned to East Africa in his role as chief executive officer for Safaricom Ethiopia after a short assignment in West Africa.
It’s possible that Vanhelleputte and Sylvia have switched places of employment, as Sylvia formerly worked for Safaricom. Before quitting her job at Safaricom PLC a year ago, she spent more than 16 years working there.
She started out as a Prepay Product Manager in the Enterprise section of Safaricom when she first joined the company. After that, she served as the Head of Retail from 2007 until 2009. Before taking on her new position as Chief Consumer Business Officer, Sylvia was promoted to the position of General Manager of the Enterprise Business Unit. The year 2018 marked her ascension to the position of Chief Customer Officer.
MTN Uganda’s double digits growth due to fintech, data utilisation
Some achievements of MTN Uganda
MTN Uganda’s service revenue increased by 15% yearly, reaching Ush 1,250 billion ($335 million). This growth was driven by the company’s successful voice, data, and fintech operations. This expansion was documented during the first half of 2023, which concluded on June 30.
MTN Uganda’s Chief Executive Officer Sylvia Mulinge stated that the 15.0% rise in service revenue is in line with the company’s plan, which reflects the strong voice performance, double-digit data revenue growth, and fintech revenue growth. “Despite inflation, we handled costs successfully,” she said. “
Expanding the client base was the primary contributor to the 9.4% increase in voice revenue. Due to strategic gains, net additions increased to 18.1 million, bringing the total number of consumers to 910,000.
Through user migration to 3G, MTN Uganda was able to reduce congestion on the 2G network further, hence improving the experience for its customers. However, transitioning customers to new networks continues to be a difficulty. This is in contrast to the situation in neighbouring Kenya, where 5G services have already been offered by Airtel Kenya and Safaricom, with Airtel taking the lead.
