Eli Hini, CEO of MTN’s MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB) has reportedly resigned from the company.
Reports said Hini, together with his Chief Commercial Officer at MTN MoMo PBS, Elsa Muzzolini, have left the company in a surprising leadership change at the fintech.
Techfocus24 checks also confirmed that indeed Hini resigned on June 30, 2024, but had to do a few stakeholder engagements before moving on out officially last month. It is however unclear if he has taken another role elsewhere.
We are reliably informed that he has a number of options but he has decided to take a break before getting busy again.
Muzzolini, on the other hand, has joined M-PESA Ethiopia, Safaricom’s mobile money business as CEO on July 15, after informing employees of her resignation in a note on July 12. She also updated her LinkedIn profile with the new role at Safaricom.
Both Hini and Muzzolini joined MoMo PSB in 2022 and led its growth strategies in Nigeria. Before moving to Nigeria, Hini was the CEO of MTN MoMo in Ghana, where he led the company for almost a decade and half to capture over 90% market share.
Hini is famed for championing the mobile money and mobile finance revolution in Ghana, which earned him the accolade “Father of MoMo” in Ghana. The success of mobile money in Ghana today is largely due to Hini’s commitment and dedication to making the MTN Group believe in and invest in the service, while other telcos were dragging their feet.
Hini and Muzzolini’s exit from MTN MoMo PBS comes at a time when MTN Nigeria ramps up investment in its fintech unit to grow its share of wallets and app adoption following losses in its core telecoms business.
Phrase Lubega, the company’s group executive for fintech commercial operations, has been named the acting CEO. His appointment is subject to Central Bank of Nigeria approval, one person with direct knowledge of the matter was reported as saying.
MTN did not respond to a request for comments.
Meanwhile, MTN MoMo PBS grew mobile money wallets by 55.8% to 5.5 million in H1 2024 from 3.1 million in H1 2023. Fintech revenue grew by 11% driven by increased wallet and MoMo app adoption.
On Monday, August 5, 2024, MTN Nigeria paid ₦6.95 billion to buy off Acxani Capital Limited, the minority shareholder of MoMo PSB. MTN Nigeria took control of the fintech unit to strengthen MoMo PSB’s operations and position it for growth, according to a regulatory filing. The deal also allows MTN Nigeria to deploy more funding into the fintech unit. MoMo received an additional ₦9.4 billion in investment from MTN Nigeria as part of the deal.
