Rufai appointed MTN Nigeria Chief Technical Officer

MTN Nigeria has announced the appointment of Mohammed Rufai as its Chief Technical Officer. In this role, according to a statement from MTN, Rufai will be responsible for defining MTN’s technology strategy and roadmap; designing and planning all aspects of the business network operation; oversee continuous implementation of aggressive network rollout schedules; development and maintenance […]

MTN Nigeria has announced the appointment of Mohammed Rufai as its Chief Technical Officer.

In this role, according to a statement from MTN, Rufai will be responsible for defining MTN’s technology strategy and roadmap; designing and planning all aspects of the business network operation; oversee continuous implementation of aggressive network rollout schedules; development and maintenance of technology infrastructure, as well as policy formulation and review.

An industry veteran, Rufai brings with him almost two decades of experience in information and communication technology and telecommunication. He holds a BTech in Computer Science from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, as well as certificates from Cranfield University, Global Advance Programme at Duke Corporate Education, India, and the Senior Management Programme at the Lagos Business School.

Prior to this appointment, Rufai worked with MTN Group where he was the General Manager, Technology (South East Africa and Ghana).  He has had a long, storied career within the MTN group.

Rufai joined MTN Nigeria in 2002 as an RF/BTS Support Engineer in Kano. By 2009, he had risen to the rank of general manager. He led a succession of high-performing teams in network operations, access, planning and optimisation till late 2015 when he was appointed Chief Technical Officer of MTN Ghana.

While in Ghana, Rufai drove an expansion in network capacity that supported tremendous growth. During the period, voice traffic more than doubled, while data usage increased over 900 per cent. He was twice adjudged “CTO of the Year” at the Ghana IT and Telecoms Awards (GITTA). Rufai also led the license acquisition and implementation of a new LTE network for which his team received the Engineering Excellence Award from Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE).

Rufai’s appointment is effective May 1, 2019.