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MTN Uganda in conjunction with the Project Girls for Girls joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Women’s Day that falls on the 8th of March every year.

While MTN appreciates women and diversity, project Girls for Girls aims at exposure to female leadership, mentorship, and access to education and training to boost the aspirations of young women and cultivate the capacity to lead.

In line with the International Women’s Day theme, Choose to Challenge, MTN Uganda and Project Girls for Girls hosted a webinar earlier today, under the Topic – Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World, featuring Ms. Yolanda Cuba the MTN Group Regional Vice President Southern and East Africa as a guest speaker.

The topic of discussion was deliberately focused on Women in Leadership based on the fact that Executive leaders play a significant part in advancing gender equality.

From helping forge an inclusive world where diversity is valued, to creating workplaces where women’s careers can thrive, leaders are responsible for driving positive change.

Based on the day’s topic of discussion Yolanda Cuba, who joined MTN Group shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic shared tips on how women can make the most of the pandemic to their advantage rather than lowering their ambitions.

“It (Covid-19) forced me to upscale my ambition. Many people during a pandemic downscale their ambition. I thought I could do more even in the face of the pandemic,” said Cuba, who unsurprisingly rose to her new position as Vice President for the South and East African MTN Markets on January 1st this year, amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic.

This, however was not a seamless journey for Cuba who had to virtually cultivate all her connections with her colleagues at MTN due to the pandemic that pushed people to remote working. However, with a clear vision and trust in her team to deliver, Cuba has navigated through the pandemic in a new work place and gone ahead to excel at her job.

Cuba urged women to be competent, consistent and courageous if they are to have an equal future to their male counterparts.

“It takes only 10% more effort than everybody else for you to be outstanding.” Says Cuba who was named one of the top 20 power women in Africa by Forbes Magazine.

Besides encouraging them to align their life’s purpose to their career ambition, Cuba also encouraged women to surround themselves with motivated and competent women who will in turn support their vision.

She also urged employers to give women opportunities to take up senior roles as well as women leaders looking out for the young competent females in their workplaces. She also appealed to human resource managers to make a deliberate effort to close the payment parity gap between men and women in order to make the equal future a reality.

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About Project Girls for Girls:

Exposure to female leadership, mentorship, and access to education and training can help boost the aspirations of young women and cultivate the capacity to lead. Our mission is to empower girls to lead and our target is 10,000 mentors, 1,000,000 mentees by the end of 2030.

About MTN Uganda

Launched in 1998, MTN Uganda is the leading communications operator in Uganda, offering Mobile and Fixed telecommunications, Mobile Money Services and Internet Service Provisioning. As at 31st December 2018, MTN Uganda recorded 11.2 million subscribers across Uganda. Visit us at www.mtn.co.ug or follow us on www.youtube.com/mtnug and www.twitter.com/mtnug or www.twitter.com/mtnugpro for assistance.

About the MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator with a clear vision to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to our 240 million customers in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. We are inspired by our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code “MTN”. We are pursuing our BRIGHT strategy with a major focus on growth in data, fintech and digital businesses.

 

For more information, please contact:

The mediadesk.ug@mtn.com or 077 212 1372 or

Emmy Olaki at emmy.olaki@tbwa-uganda.com or 078 260 5997

At the tail end of last year, MTN group announced changes to the regional structure and the Group Executive Committee in which Ms. Yolanda Cuba was appointed as the MTN Group Vice President for the Southern and East African (SEA) MTN markets effective 1 January, 2020. This announcement coincided with yet another Woman rising to the position of Vice president; H.E Kamala Harris and similarly to her story of firsts, Yolanda Cuba is also the first woman to be confirmed in this position in MTN history!

Named one of the youngest CEOs of a JSE-listed company at the age of 29, Yolanda Cuba has gone on to become one of the Key business leaders in Africa today. As a young group CEO of the publicly listed Mvelaphanda Group, she was selected as one of the Young Global Leaders in 2008, an initiative by the World Economic Forum and named one of the ’20 Youngest Power Women in Africa’ by Forbes Magazine in 2011.

As the New SEA Vice President, Cuba brings to the role a formidable track record of over 20 years executive experience in telecommunications and finance that will see her steer the continued growth and strategic progress of the SEA region which is critical to MTN’s growth ambitions as it presents good opportunity for growth in mobile financial services as well as the largest potential for further expansion.

The SEA region covers the MTN markets in Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia.

Prior to this appointment, Cuba was the Chief Digital and Fintech Officer at the MTN Group. In her previous role, the prolific telecom expert was charged with leading MTN Group’s strategic expansion of its financial services and digital solutions efforts and transformation into a digital operator across its footprint of 21 countries in Africa and Middle East.

Before joining MTN in July 2019, Cuba worked with the Vodacom Group Limited from 2013 as a non-executive director. She later became an executive member of the company in November 2014 and served as its Group Chief Officer of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions and New Business until her promotion to Chief Executive in the company.

The seasoned strategist led Vodacom’s mergers and acquisitions as well as its acceleration unit into telco adjacencies such as financial services among others. Subsequently, Cuba was in 2016, made the Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana, a role she outstandingly performed resulting to her scooping the coveted title of Telecom CEO of the year in 2018. The other notable awards under Cuba’s belt include; the Top Empowered Business Woman of the Year by Top Companies in 2006 and the Youth Excellence award by the Black Management Forum in 2007.

Cuba also previously served as an Executive Director of Strategy and Business Support at the South African Breweries (SAB) Limited since February 2012. She also previously occupied the position of Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at New Bond Capital Ltd.

Cuba has served on a number of JSE-listed boards: She was a board member of South African Breweries Ltd; Absa Group Limited where she served  for 12 years before resigning in 2019 and has been a member of the Nelson Mandela Investment Committee since 2006.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Statistics from the University of Cape Town, a Bachelor of Commerce Honors degree in Accounting from University of Kwazulu-Natal and a Masters of Commerce degree from the University of Pretoria. She is also an alumnus of INSEAD International Executive Program.

Cuba is passionate about education and inclusive social and financial development, has served on the Advisory Board of Stellenbosch University Business School and has founded Cuba Mtyi Foundation that focuses on empowering young Girls through Education.