(Adds details, quote)
By Chijioke Ohuocha
ABUJA, July 24 (Reuters) - MTN Nigeria MTNN.LG has
appointed former telecoms regulatory chief Ernest Ndukwe as
chairman-designate in a board shake-up following its debut stock
market listing on the Nigerian bourse.
Majority owned by South Africa's MTN Group MTNJ.J , MTN
Nigeria listed in Lagos in May in a 2 trillion naira ($6.54
billion) debut, in part to settle a long-running dispute in
Nigeria, its biggest market.
That listing turned the telecoms company into the exchange's
second-largest stock by market value. Ndukwe, ex-chief executive of the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), will take over from Pascal Dozie, who has been
at the helm for almost two decades, on Sept. 2, MTN said.
In addition to Ndukwe, MTN has appointed former Nigerian
pension regulatory chief Muhammad Ahmad, ex-minister for
communication Omobola Johnson and ex-banker Andrew Alli who once
represented the International Finance Corporation to MTN
Nigeria's board.
"(The) combination of extensive experience across the worlds
of technology, finance, regulatory and policy development and
corporate governance offers a hugely synergistic set of skills
that will be of great benefit to us as we move into a new phase
of growth," MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Ferdinand Moolman said.
MTN Nigeria grew to become Nigeria's biggest telecoms firm
under Dozie, who steps down alongside five other directors after
18 years at the helm of the company.
In December, MTN agreed to make a $53 million payment to
resolve a multibillion-dollar dividend repatriation row in
Nigeria after it paid over $1 billion to settle a dispute over
unregistered SIM cards and agreed to list on Nigeria's bourse.