Ralph Mupita

The CEO of South African mobile phone giant MTN, voted boss of the year.

​​​​​​​Born in 1972 into a modest family in Zimbabwe, Ralph Mupita dreamed of becoming an astronaut and going to the moon. His parents brought him down to earth, but encouraged him to remain ambitious. And to believe in the power of education to realise his ambitions. So he went off to study in Cape Town, graduating with an MBA in engineering, before embarking on a brilliant career in finance. In September 2020, he became CEO of MTN Group. The mobile operator, created in 1994 in South Africa, with Standard Bank and the South African civil servants' pension fund as its main shareholders, is present in around twenty countries on the continent, as well as in Iran which, with 48 million subscribers, is one of its main markets alongside South Africa and Nigeria! Under Mupita, the group has invested in new technologies in order to compete with American Big Tech on the African market.

He set about diversifying the mobile operator's activities: more than 72 million of its 300 million or so subscribers now use its MoMo mobile payment app. Better still, a year ago, Mupita managed to convince Mastercard to take a stake in MTN Group Fintech. In May this year, the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali named him CEO of the Year 2024, ahead of Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote. “We believe that by driving digital and financial inclusion, we bring opportunity, dignity and hope to Africans.”