MTN names Tiwary and Ikeme to group operations and regulatory posts
Two internal appointments take effect in September 2026, as the group pushes execution of its Ambition 20230 strategy across African markets.
MTN Group has appointed two internal executives to senior group roles from September 2026, in what the company describes as a move to strengthen leadership capacity as it firms up execution of its Ambition 20230 strategy.
Ashutosh Tiwary becomes Operations Executive for Francophone Markets on 1 September 2026. Ikenna Ikeme becomes Executive for Group Regulatory Affairs on 7 September 2026. Both appointments were announced by MTN Group in a company statement published on 26 August 2026.
Tiwary takes the Francophone portfolio
Tiwary brings more than 27 years of telecommunications leadership experience across Africa and India, according to the company. He has held several executive roles within MTN, beginning in South Africa as GM: Prepaid Consumer Business, where the group credits him with stabilising and growing that business.
He was later appointed Acting CEO of MTN Guinea Bissau, where the group says he delivered on an executive mandate to turn the business around and then supported the portfolio optimisation strategy that ended in the sale of the business. His most recent assignment was GM: Customer Operations, where he worked with the MTN Group Home Broadband Business team on building and scaling customer operations through operational excellence programmes.
In the new role, Tiwary will serve as strategic and operational lead for the group’s Francophone markets, supporting delivery of strategic priorities and strengthening governance across Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Congo Brazzaville. He will also work with operating company leadership teams to align with group priorities.
Ikeme moves from Nigeria to the group regulatory desk
Ikeme joins the group regulatory leadership team with more than 30 years of experience across telecommunications, banking and insurance. He is currently General Manager: Regulatory Affairs at MTN Nigeria, where the group describes him as one of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications regulatory professionals.
During his career he has led and supported industry initiatives including regulatory approvals for spectrum transactions, national roaming arrangements, 5G licensing, infrastructure sharing and mobile virtual network operator partnerships. The group says he has also helped shape regulatory frameworks intended to enable industry growth while safeguarding consumer and stakeholder interests.
His group responsibilities will include strengthening regulatory governance, managing regulatory risks, driving policy advocacy, supporting strategic business initiatives and building relationships with regulators and key stakeholders. He will work with the group legal and regulatory affairs office and teams across MTN’s markets.
Ikeme holds an MBA from Enugu State University of Science and Technology. He is a qualified Barrister-at-Law, has completed the Advanced Management Programme at MIT Sloan School of Management, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (Europe).
What the appointments cover
MTN operates across a set of markets where regulatory questions, spectrum allocation and licensing decisions sit with national authorities, and where the group’s Francophone operations span four countries named in the announcement. The two roles cover the operational and regulatory sides of that footprint.
The group says the appointments strengthen its operations and regulatory leadership and bring further depth and experience to its efforts to navigate what it calls an increasingly dynamic and competitive operational and regulatory landscape across Africa.
The group says the appointments bring further depth and experience to its efforts across an increasingly competitive operational and regulatory landscape in Africa.
Both appointments are internal. Tiwary moves from a group customer operations role, and Ikeme moves from the Nigerian operating company into a group position. Neither appointment changes the composition of the group’s board, and the announcement states no other leadership changes.
The group has not stated a date for either executive to begin reporting in the new roles beyond the two September start dates.
