KAMPALA – Discussions between telecom giants, MTN Uganda and Government have finally bore fruits with the latest information from State House indicating that President Yoweri Museveni has finally allowed the company’s embattled boss back into the country.
In a tweet sent out by Senior Presidential Secretary, Don Wanyama, he wrote; “Following discussions with MTN Group top management, President Kaguta Museveni has exercised his executive discretion and allowed MTN CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte, back into the country. He is expected to resume his duties.”
MTN Uganda has been at loggerheads with the Government of Uganda following the unceremonious deportation of its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wim Vanhelleputte to Belgium on 14th February 2019 who was ordered to stay out of Uganda indefinitely despite having a.
Vanhelleputte’s deportation followed the arrest and deportation of three other senior managers including; chief marketing officer, Olivier Prentout, the mobile money general manager Elsa Mussolini and general manager for sales and distribution Annie Tabura.
The MTN deportations came in the midst of investigations that kicked off in July 2018 when a team from the Internal Security Organ raided MTN call centre in Mutundwe-Kampala with reports that the investigators walked away with the company’s servers.
However, Vanhelleputte protested his deportation filing an application at High court in which he argued that he has been married to Babra Adoso a Ugandan citizen since April 29, 2000, with their marriage having resulted into two children namely Vanhelleputte Jonathan aged 17 and Vanhelleputte Jason 13.
After the raid, more MTN staff were put under investigations with accusations that the team committed espionage when they leaked top National Security secrets to Rwanda, with ISO believed to widen its net to look into allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.
Government went further to dig claws deeper into MTN operations and forced the company to hire local staff to top positions, amid the turbulent relationship marred with accusations of espionage.
MTN abide by the terms of the deal and went further to advertised the posts of its fired staff and also went further to create a new managerial position, Risk and Compliance in its new structural changes.
Among the positions advertised for included General Manager-Mobile Financial Services whose duties include; develop and execute strategy, policies and procedures for the rollout of mobile money services initiatives and ensure sustainable market dominance as set out in MTN Uganda business plans.
The other position up for grabs is General Manager -Enterprise Business Unit and the successful candidate’s duties will be to manage and direct the company’s Enterprise business unit within the framework of the agreed business strategy and to meet operational targets for revenues, profitability and customer satisfaction.
The Company also announced it was looking for General Manager-Sales and Distribution to manage the execution and implementation of the sales and distribution strategy within the company. To oversee the direction and control of all the sales and distribution in the company, ensuring they are streamlined for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
The advertisement also put up deported Chief Marketing Officer is set to be replaced after her job was put up for grabs and the new member will be mandated to develop and execute the overall marketing strategy for the acquisition and retention of customers and the growth value of those subscribers as well as work to maintain market share leadership of MTN within the industry.
For the very first time in its structure, MTN is hiring General Manager-Risk and Compliance whose duty will be to implement a compliance second in line assurance function and framework for the company and its board of directors with the main purpose of being to effectively manage all risk exposures of an internal or external nature and ensure existence of effective internal processes and policies in general and specifically in relation to compliance to laws and regulations across the MTN footprint.
