• The full-year 2023 saw bold strategic moves taken across the Middle East and Africa by services providers as they worked to maintain competitive positions in the face of the rise of disruptive emerging technologies

Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Johannesburg, South Africa – United Arab Emirates-based premier telecom, media, and technology (TMT) strategic information consultancy, Pursuit Mode Initiatives, publisher of the Comm. Decisive Dozen, has disclosed its latest ranking of the Middle East and Africa’s (MEA) most effective telco executive leaders in 2023.

The annual list seeks to identify the top 12 service provider leaders based on the subjective interpretation of strategic decisions taken during 2023, with the wider impact, repercussions, and context of such decisions on the organisations’ operating environment being taken into consideration in weighting the executives’ effectiveness over the period.

Comm. Decisive Dozen was first published in 2011, and has been considered a bellwether for the impact and context of major strategic developments in the MEA telecom market ever since. In the latest compilation of the ranking, 2023 reflects a year in which service providers from across the region exhibited immense maturity in opportunities they pursued and those they decided not to.

An assessment of market and geo-political factors, for example, resulted in there being no bidder for the third telecom license in Ethiopia, while MTN announced plans to exit Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, and Liberia. Meantime, Orange Group confirmed it would not pursue a stake in Ethiopian telco incumbent Ethio Telecom at this stage, while the UAE’s e& paused any plans to raise its shareholding in Saudi operator Mobily.

Tawanda Chihota, Executive Director of Pursuit Mode Initiatives and author of the rankings commented, “Another year that the regional sector can be proud of given how it has been able to navigate everything thrown at it, from civil conflicts and local currency depreciations to intense competition and concerns over the rise of emerging technologies on the business.”

Chihota continued, “The innovation mindset appears to have fully taken root, be that for the service operators themselves, or through the offerings they are bringing to market. The rise of the ‘super app’ is one such example, with service providers across the region looking to leverage digital platforms so as to generate incremental revenue from non-traditional vertical sectors such as gaming, mobile money, or entertainment.”

“With many of the conglomerate service providers following well-defined, distinct corporate strategies, there appears to be a confidence in the decision-making by the leaders on this list, which is driving significant gains. Operational and financial performances were generally quite robust over the year, with the foundations to achieve continued positive momentum laid, should the global economy not slide into recession in 2024 and beyond.”

Leveraging technology remained a cornerstone of the digital transformation journey that many service providers are traversing, with 5G and even 5G-Advanced gaining momentum in the Gulf. Also in the Gulf, the UAE’s e& continued to set the pace with an array of impactful moves, including raising its stake in Vodafone Group to 14.6%, to become the UK telco group’s largest single shareholder. e& has an expressed desire to raise that stake even higher to 20%.

Saudi counterpart STC, similarly remained steadfast in its plans to effectively raise its position in Telefonica to 9.9%, having amassed a stake worth US$2.23 billion, consisting of 4.9% of Telefonica's shares and financial instruments that give it another 5% in so-called economic exposure to the company.

The runaway success that is mobile money and fintech within the telco sector in Africa in particular was given further acknowledgement by Mastercard’s deal to acquire a minority stake in MTN Group’s fintech empire, valuing the entire business unit at somewhere in the region of US$5 billion.

The independent tower management business reached significant new heights in the region, with a pioneering agreement between Zain Group and Ooredoo to pool nearly 30,000 towers across six regional markets into a single joint entity, reflecting a new level of cooperation and collaboration between service providers not previously witnessed.

The full list of the 12 executives included in the 2024 edition of the Comm. Decisive Dozen rankings may be found here: https://joom.ag/kA0d

About Pursuit Mode Initiatives

Pursuit Mode Initiatives (PMI is a UAE-based company focused on supporting companies primarily in the technology sector in the Middle East Africa in devising and executing effective corporate strategy and communications programmes. As part of this effort, PMI provides tailored, concise, and authoritative strategic communications tools and insights, having been in operation since 2011.