MTN Group has officially confirmed Jerry Soko as Chief Executive Officer of MTN Eswatini, effective July 1, 2026, closing out a seven month acting stint that began after former CEO Wandile Mtshali exited the role in November 2025. The appointment continues MTN’s pattern this year of filling top leadership positions from within its own ranks rather than running external searches, a strategy the telecom group has leaned on repeatedly across several of its operating markets in 2026.
Soko is a qualified accountant with more than two decades of experience across Africa’s ICT sector, and his path to the Eswatini top job runs through several other MTN markets. Before his acting role in Eswatini, he held senior leadership positions including CEO and CFO roles in Zambia, South Sudan, Botswana and Rwanda, giving him exposure to a wide spread of regulatory environments and market conditions across the continent. He also sits on several boards as a non executive director.
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MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita credited Soko with turning around performance during his time in the acting seat, noting that MTN Eswatini regained momentum, tightened operational discipline and deepened customer engagement under his watch. Mupita said Soko’s track record and familiarity with the business make him well positioned to lead the unit into its next growth phase.
During his seven months as acting CEO, Soko focused on stabilising the business after a period of underperformance, with priorities centred on network resilience, customer experience and disciplined execution. MTN said he also strengthened cash management, improved operational efficiency and forged strategic partnerships aimed at supporting Eswatini’s wider digital economy goals. The company further credited him with building a stronger culture of accountability internally and investing in leadership development and succession planning, an area MTN has been emphasising across its executive bench this year.
Tuesday’s announcement is not an isolated move. It follows a string of leadership changes across MTN Group in the first half of 2026, including three senior appointments filled from the company’s existing executive bench on June 2. The pattern reflects a deliberate shift in how MTN builds its top leadership, favouring internal promotion over external hires as it pushes forward with its Ambition 2030 strategy, which aims to reposition the group from a traditional telecom operator into a broader digital platform business spanning connectivity, fintech and digital infrastructure.
While Eswatini remains one of MTN’s smaller operating companies by subscriber base, the market carries strategic weight for the group as African telecom operators increasingly look past core connectivity into mobile financial services, enterprise technology and cloud offerings. Analysts tracking MTN’s leadership moves this year say the group’s growing reliance on operators who have already proven themselves across multiple African markets signals a maturing internal talent pipeline, one MTN appears keen to keep drawing from as it expands its digital ambitions across the continent.
