MTN appoints Shoyinka Shodunke as Head of IT Core Design and Delivery, effective March 1, 2026

MTN Group has announced the appointment of Shoyinka Shodunke as Executive: IT Core Design and Delivery, effective 1 March 2026.

According to an email seen by Technext on Friday, the group noted that in the new position, Shoyinka will lead the development and execution of standardised and AI-enhanced IT architectures across the company’s operations.

“His responsibilities will include integrating AI-driven automation, predictive analytics and digital transformation initiatives to improve customer experience, operational efficiency and service agility, while accelerating innovation cycles and time-to-market,” part of the statement reads. 

While Shoyinka will assume the new role in March, he currently serves concurrently as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the group’s Nigerian and South African markets. Therein, he championed large-scale digital initiatives impacting more than 80 million subscribers. He has also supervised a technology ecosystem comprising over 350 professionals.

According to the statement, Shoyinka brings more than 29 years of experience in technology leadership, digital transformation and innovation across Africa’s telecoms industry. 

He has served in various roles such as Director of Technology at Vodafone Ghana, Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO) at MTN Cameroon, CIO at MTN Zambia, and General Manager of Architecture for the group’s Shared Services Hub in Southeast Africa.

“Shoyinka is recognised for a leadership approach anchored in adaptive intelligence and collaborative value creation. His work has focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance human creativity, strengthen system resilience and drive innovation at scale,” part of the statement reads. 

As an experienced figure in the sector, Shoyinka was named MTN Group CIO of the Year in 2025, an award that credited his role in supporting MTN’s evolution from a traditional telecoms operator into an AI-enabled technology organisation.

In addition, he also received the Tech Champion in Telecoms and CIO of the Year awards at the CIO and C-Suite Awards Africa.

Shoyinka holds an MBA from the University of Northampton, an Advanced Management Programme (AMP) at Harvard Business School, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Global Management from the University of Salford, Manchester. He also holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mathematics and Statistics from the Federal University of Technology in Nigeria.

Also Read: MTN Nigeria recorded 9,218 cases of fibre cuts with 211 sites vandalised in 2025.

MTN and its investment in AI

The group’s appointment of Shoyinka to the role of Executive: IT Core Design and Delivery represents an investment in AI across its operations in Africa. 

MTN Group has shown a strong focus on building data centres, developing local language models (LLMs), and partnering with tech giants like Microsoft to boost digital infrastructure and enhance customer services (like MoMo chatbots).

As part of its move to fill Africa’s massive AI infrastructure gap and unlock new revenue streams, the group is in talks with U.S. and European firms to develop data centres across the continent to power AI services.

The group’s CEO, Ralph Mupita, in an interview with Bloomberg in September 2025, said MTN will directly fund part of the investment for the AI data centre build-out. In the project, the telecoms operator will be working with global partners, including co-investors, AI infrastructure firms, and hyperscalers such as Microsoft.

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