Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (ETISALAT)’s Nigerian unit said Chief Executive Officer Steven Evans resigned last month and returned home to the U.K. after leading the company for most of its five years in existence.
Chief Commercial Officer Matthew Willsher was appointed as acting CEO in his place, Chineze Amanfo, a Lagos-based spokeswoman for Etisalat Nigeria, as the company is known, said by phone today. Willsher didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment and Evans’ Etisalat e-mail bounced back. Abu Dhabi-based parent Etisalat didn’t immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Evans was appointed in December 2008, two months after Etisalat began full commercial operations in Nigeria, according to Etisalat Nigeria’s website. Prior to that he was chief executive officer of London-based BT Group Plc (BT/A)’s mobile unit.
Etisalat is the fourth-largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and most populous nation with more than 160 million people. The company had 15.3 million subscribers as of June 2013, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission. Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd. (MTN) is the biggest mobile company in Nigeria.
