Africa’s leading mobile operator with operations also in the Asia and the Middle East, MTN, has announced the resignation of the chief executive officer of its South Africa operations, Mr. Ahmad Farroukh.
The MTN Group President, Mr. Sifiso Dabengwa, announcing Mr. Farroukh’s resignation, in a statement issued at the company’s headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, stated:
“This was a difficult decision to take for Ahmad, but unavoidable due to personal and family reasons.”
The MTN Group further announced that Mr. Farroukh’s resignation takes effect from July 31, 2015.
Mr. Farroukh joined MTN in 2006, with the acquisition of Investcom. According to the MTN issued by the Group Corporate Afrairs, Ahmad, as he is fondly called within the Group, “has fulfilled several roles during his tenure with the Group,” one of which was serving as CEO of MTN Nigeria, having served in a similar role at MTN Ghana.
Before assuming the role of Group Chief Operating Executive, he was Vice-President of the West and Central Africa (WECA) region.
An informed industry source within the South African region who preferred not to be named, told IT & Telecom Digest that the resignation of such a top executive of Mr. Farroukh’s level in such a rather short time “is unusual,” arguing there is more to it than the Group is probably explaining at the moment.
Arguing that the MTN Group “is far too well organised for a CEO of any of its operations to just announce resignation three weeks to the effective date,” the source said the fact that a successor was yet to be found for the departing CEO lends credence to his argument.
The MTN Group’s statement issued on July 6, informed that “a successor to Farroukh will be announced as soon as the new appointment is finalised.”
“On behalf of the MTN leadership, we thank Ahmad for his contribution and wish him success with his future endeavours,” concludes Dabengwa.