Shoyinka Shodunke will lead MTN AI and IT design in March

MTN just leveled up its tech brain, dropped a heavyweight into the core IT seat, and quietly signaled that AI is no longer optional.

The appointment that matters

• MTN Group named Shoyinka Shodunke as Executive: IT Core Design and Delivery.
• The start date is 1 March 2026.
• This role sits right at the nerve center of how MTN builds and runs its tech.

Why Shoyinka is the pick

• Shodunke brings more than 29 years of telecom tech leadership across Africa.
• His career reads like a greatest-hits tour of senior technology roles.
• This is not a stretch hire; it is a consolidation move.

His career arc, compressed

• Director of Technology at Vodafone Ghana.
• Chief Technology and Information Officer at MTN Cameroon.
• Chief Information Officer at MTN Zambia.
• General Manager: Architecture for the MTN Shared Services Hub in Southeast Africa.

What he is doing right now

• He currently serves as CIO for MTN Nigeria.
• He also holds the same role at MTN South Africa.
• Those roles touch more than 80 million subscribers.
• The tech ecosystem under his watch runs north of 350 professionals.

How he leads

• His leadership style leans on adaptive intelligence.
• System resilience and collaboration sit at the core.
• Artificial Intelligence is treated as a creativity amplifier, not a buzzword.

The awards trail

• In 2025, he was named MTN Group CIO of the Year.
• That recognition is tied directly to a massive digital transformation push.
• He also picked up Tech Champion in Telecoms and CIO of the Year at the CIO and C-Suite Awards Africa.

The academic backbone

• Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.
• MBA from the University of Northampton.
• Postgraduate Diploma in Global Management from the University of Salford, Manchester.
• Bachelor of Technology in Mathematics and Statistics from the Federal University of Technology.

What his new job actually means

• He will steer standardized IT architectures across MTN’s markets.
• AI-enhanced systems move from side project to default setting.
• Automation and predictive analytics become baked into operations.

The bigger MTN signal

• Customer experience, efficiency, and service agility are the targets.
• Innovation cycles are expected to shrink.
• Time-to-market is about to get a lot tighter.
• MTN is clearly betting that AI-first infrastructure is the next competitive edge.