Mulinge becomes the first female to head Uganda’s largest telecom by assets and subscriber base. At the time of her appointment, Mulinge has been working with Safaricom as the Chief Customer Officer, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the telecommunications company.

MTN Uganda has appointed Sylvia Wairimu Mulinge, the Chief Customer Officer at Safaricom, as the new Chief Executive Officer effective September 1, 2022. Mulinge becomes the first female to head Uganda’s largest telecom by assets and subscriber base. At the time of her appointment, Mulinge has been working with Safaricom as the Chief Customer Officer, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the telecommunications company.
“I would like to welcome Ms. Sylvia Mulinge to MTN Uganda. I believe that her experience will be beneficial to MTN, particularly given her alignment to our strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. The board is confident that Ms. Mulinge will continue growing the company as a leading provider of telecommunications and digital solutions,” Charles Mbire, Board Chairman of MTN Uganda. Mulinge replaces Wim Vanhelleputte who has been appointed to a new regional role as Operating Executive for the West East and Central Africa (WECA) Markets of Liberia, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, and Congo-Brazzaville within the MTN Group effective August 1, 2022.

During his six years tenure, Vanhelleputte successfully delivered the renewal of MTN’s NTO License, the separation of the mobile financial services business from the telco business and the initial public offer and listing of the Company on the Uganda Securities Exchange.

Mulinge becomes the first female to head Uganda’s largest telecom by assets and subscriber base. At the time of her appointment, Mulinge has been working with Safaricom as the Chief Customer Officer.

Mulinge’s appointment comes at a time when the country’s business environment is turbulent, and specifically, the telecommunication sector that is grappling with increasing operational costs from high fuel prices, depreciation of the shilling, inflationary pressures and persistent power outages.

According to the outgoing CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte, these factors will continue to impact consumer spending as well as input costs for the business.

The growing cut-throat competition has seen MTN Uganda shed a significant proportion of market share to 47.5 percent last year, from about 60 percent five years ago to rivals, Airtel Uganda, Uganda Telecom and Lycamobile,  despite maintaining the market leader position. Nevertheless, its subscriber base has been growing year-on-year to 16.7 million mobile users in 2021.

Mulinge will have to address the issue of growing number of scammers even as market players adopted the industry practices such as the multi-factor authentication (OTP plus PIN or password).

Ms. Ssewankambo says Uganda telecom service providers have to improve the quality of service delivery as drop calls persist on some networks. She cited masts as being key to coverage and quality of service.

“This is actually a problem that is happening across the world even in developed countries like Australia, US and the UK. Raising awareness is thus very key to fighting fraud,” said Ssewankambo.

“Today, we see more people using data services and yet the penetration is still low, more people are using mobile money, but there is room to transform it into the e-commerce platform to drive business in Africa. Ugandans are open to all these things, but as a telecom provider, we need to bridge whatever gaps still exist in terms of reach and pricing,’’ she added.

MTN Uganda, which has been rolling out services similar to those pioneered by Safaricom, will be relying on her extensive experience to grow the business. A seasoned executive, she brings with her a passion for transforming customers’ lives using technology.

“Mulinge joined Safaricom in 2006, rising through the ranks to Chief Customer Officer in 2018. She took her current role in July 2021. She was instrumental in setting up two key businesses in Safaricom; Enterprise and Fixed Data,” said Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa, as he announced her exit.

MTN Uganda was listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange last year through an initial public offering that saw its South African parent firm sell a 12.96 percent stake against the target of 20 percent. The transaction was done to comply with local ownership rules.

MTN Uganda’s net income for the year ended December increased 5.8 percent to Sh10.8 billion, helped by a 9.7 percent jump in total revenue to Sh65.3 billion. The company says the earnings would have been higher under normal trading conditions, noting that it paid a total of $17.1 million (Sh2 billion) in license fees and costs of terminating a services agreement with Invesco Uganda Limited.

Mulinge was born in Kenya and attended St. Xaviers Primary School (1983-1990) in the town of Nakuru, and Mary Mount Secondary School (1991-1994) for her elementary and secondary education. She studied at the University of Nairobi, graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Science and Technology.

Mulinge has had an illustrative career in the last eighteen years. She began her career in August 2004, at Unilever, the European consumer products conglomerate, working as the Assistant Regional Brand Manager in the laundry division, based in Durban, South Africa. After nine months in South Africa, she was transferred to Kenya, as the brand manager for Sunlight, a Unilever brand. She worked there for another nine months, from May 2005 until January 2006, based in Nairobi.

In February 2006, she was hired by Safaricom Limited as the manager responsible for the company’s pre-pay product, working in that capacity until November 2007. She was then promoted to the rank of Head of Retail, in which position she served until August 2009. For the 21 months, from August 2009 until April 2011, she worked as the Head of Safaricom Business, responsible for sales. In May 2011, she was promoted to General Manager for Enterprise Business, working in that capacity for the next four years. In May 2015, she was promoted to the position of Director of Consumer Business at Safaricom.At Safaricom, she rose through the ranks to become a member of the senior management team at the company.

In 2014, Mulinge was named among the “Top 40 Women Under 40 in Kenya 2014” by Business Daily Africa, a daily business newspaper published by the Nation Media Group.

In April 2018, Sylvia Mulinge was named the Chief Executive Officer-designate at Vodacom Tanzania, replacing Ian Ferrao. The position is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The appointment was effective 1 June 2018. However, Tanzanian authorities declined to issue Sylvia Mulinge with a working permit. Vodacom had to seek for another individual to take the position. From October 1, 2018, Mulinge was reassigned as the Director of Special Projects at Safaricom, reporting directly to the company CEO.

Mulinge was born in Kenya and attended St. Xaviers Primary School (1983-1990) in the town of Nakuru, and Mary Mount Secondary School (1991-1994) for her elementary and secondary education. She studied at the University of Nairobi, graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science and Technology.