MTN Group announced in December 2024 that Stephen Blewett had been appointed Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, succeeding Selorm Adadevoh, who was elevated to the Group executive committee as Chief Commercial Officer. Blewett is set to take up the role in April 2025, providing a structured transition that allows the outgoing chief executive time to hand over responsibilities before assuming his continental mandate.
The leadership change placed Blewett at the helm of one of MTN's significant West African operating companies at a pivotal moment for the Ghanaian telecoms and mobile financial services sector. MTN Ghana is among the country's leading mobile operators and is home to MoMo, the group's mobile money platform, which has become a central pillar of financial inclusion in Ghana by enabling payments, savings, credit, and insurance products for millions of Ghanaians who access financial services primarily through their mobile phones.
ADADEVOH ELEVATED TO GROUP COMMERCIAL ROLE
Selorm Adadevoh's move to Group Chief Commercial Officer represented a significant promotion within the MTN corporate structure and reflected the value the group placed on the experience he had accumulated running the Ghana subsidiary. During his tenure as MTN Ghana CEO, Adadevoh oversaw material expansion in the subsidiary's mobile money and data businesses and navigated a challenging macroeconomic environment that included currency pressures and broader economic headwinds in Ghana. His elevation to a group-level role brought that operational and commercial experience to bear across MTN's pan-African footprint, which spans more than 20 markets.
Adadevoh's departure from the Accra-based operating company created a leadership opening that MTN Group chose to fill with a Group-level appointment. The selection of Blewett, confirmed in the December 2024 announcement, signalled the strategic importance the group attaches to the Ghana market. MTN Ghana operates in a competitive environment that includes Vodafone Ghana and AirtelTigo among its principal rivals, and the choice of an incoming chief executive with Group backing underscored the operator's intent to maintain its competitive position as digital and financial services penetration in the country continues to grow.
MOBILE MONEY REMAINS A STRATEGIC PRIORITY
MTN Ghana's MoMo platform sits within the broader MTN Fintech strategy the group has been developing to monetise its substantial subscriber base through financial services at scale. The platform facilitates a growing range of transactions and financial products and has established itself as infrastructure for the informal and formal economy alike in Ghana. Whoever leads MTN Ghana inherits responsibility for sustaining MoMo's trajectory in an environment where competition from rival platforms, new digital payment entrants, and the regulatory supervision of mobile money providers are all intensifying.
The timing of the December 2024 announcement, with a formal handover set for April 2025, gave both Adadevoh and Blewett a period in which to manage the transition of ongoing strategic and regulatory priorities in Ghana before the change of command. MTN Group has faced complex operating conditions across several of its markets in recent years, with currency volatility and regulatory negotiations among the recurring challenges, and the deliberate structuring of the Ghana transition reflected the group's preference for managed leadership successions that minimise disruption to operations and stakeholder relationships.