Karl Toriola – MTN Nigeria’s CEO Disrupting The Status Quo

In October 2020 when MTN Nigeria announced Karl Olutokun Toriola as its CEO designate to replace Ferdi Moolman in March 2021, the announcement sparked curiosity and brought Toriola unaccustomed attention.

Many started digging into the digital space to find answers about the personality of the new CEO. Aside from his sterling professional records, little was known about his personal life from his digital footprints. His calm mien suggests there must be a lot to unpack about the man who was stepping in to manage Nigeria’s largest corporate organisation by revenue outside of the oil industry and the second-largest entity listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

When Toriola assumed office on March 1, 2021, he bluntly announced his revolutionary intent: “I am committed to leading MTN Nigeria to deliver on our responsibility to the over 70 million Nigerian customers that use our services to ensure they stay connected and can access increasing value and better services through our network; our role as a corporate citizen in the recovery and growth of the Nigerian economy; and our need to deliver value and drive share price for the good of our shareholders.”

In 18 months, Karl Olutokun Toriola, true to his intent, has travelled so quickly to build a reputation as a tenacious go-getter and a true visionary who leads his team to deliver increasing value to customers as shareholders also smile to the bank.

Over the course of the past year since Toriola took over, MTN sold its first public offer which was oversubscribed by 139.5 per cent, continues to maintain its largest market share position, won the 5G license and in August 2022 became the only telecom company in West Africa to launch 5G for commercial use. The list is quite long.

One of those who share a glowing appraisal of Toriola is Oscar Onyema, the CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

At the NSE’s Closing Gong Ceremony on March 1, 2021, the day Toriola assumed office as MTN Nigeria CEO, Onyema described him as “a versatile leader who comes with vast knowledge and relevant experience spanning over 25 years.”

After 18 months as MTN Nigeria CEO, we sat with Toriola for a chat at the 10-floor MTN Plaza in Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, and in 30 minutes, Toriola took us on a ride into the story of his rise in telecom, and for the first time, he opened the lid on his private life.

We were told to be ready by 2 pm, but when he peeped into the boardroom, where the interview was held, we were still on sound, camera and light check. When he finally sat for the interview around 2:40 pm, he tells his story with rare charisma and enthusiasm.

His eyes light up, chin thrusts up and charisma ascends a new height as he talks about his journey in telecom.

Toriola believes in Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that putting 10,000 hours into one skill makes you an expert, and having worked in the telecommunications industry for close to three decades since leaving the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) with a degree in Electrical Electronics Engineering, he believes he’s qualified to be called an expert in the field. 

Toriola has never flirted with other career paths outside the telecom industry since starting his career with Ericsson immediately after obtaining his Master’s degree in Communication Systems from Swansea University, the United Kingdom.

“I always tell people I don’t know much else besides the mobile telecommunications industry and real estate because that’s where my competencies sit,” he told us.

Even if his rise in the telecom industry to becoming the CEO of MTN Nigeria surprises many, Toriola’s grit and understanding of the telecoms industry cannot be subjected to scrutiny. He has paid his dues.

Toriola said “people often say you’ve had an interesting rise and trajectory in your career, but they don’t realise that I’ve been plugging away at this industry for 27 straight years. I’ve never diversified to any other industry.

“They say if you do something for 10,000 hours, you become an expert on it. So since 1995, I’ve been working in the mobile industry, and I’ve done nothing else.”

How the telecom journey started

Toriola’s journey started on the campus of OAU more than five decades ago. Born at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Ile-Ife, Osun state, about 210km away from Lagos, Toriola completed Primary, Secondary education and his first degree within the walls of OAU in Ile-Ife, the town with a more than century-old history of hostility with his hometown – Modakeke.

Since obtaining a master’s degree from Swansea University where he first used a mobile phone and an email, Toriola has also added certificates to his portfolio from INSEAD, Singapore; Wharton Business School, USA; London Business School, UK; Harvard Business School, USA; and Institute of Management Development (IMD), Switzerland.

When he left Swansea, Toriola went to work for Ericsson, the world’s biggest mobile communication systems vendor. Before joining MTN in 2006, Toriola had spent time burnishing his CV at Econet, which later metamorphosed into VMobile and Zain and now Airtel, Bain & Company Inc., South Africa, Mercer Management Consulting, San Francisco, U.S and Schlumberger in their Gabon, Nigeria and Indonesia offices.

At MTN, where he presently sits at the top of the organisational chart, he journeyed from Chief Transformation Officer to Non-Executive Director in the Benin Republic and Cameroun, CEO of MTN Congo and MTN Cameroun, Group Operations Executive and Vice President, West and Central Africa until his appointment as CEO of MTN Nigeria in October 2020.

Taking MTN far and beyond

When Karl Toriola assumed office as MTN Nigeria CEO on March 1, 2021, he inherited an organisation on an aggressive growth path, with a revenue of N1.3 trillion in December 2020, three months before he took over.

In 18 months, Toriola led MTN Nigeria’s sale of its first public offer which was oversubscribed by 139.5 per cent, as it continues to maintain its largest market share position. In the first half of 2022, MTN added 5.7 million (7.6%) new mobile subscribers to move its subscriber base to 74.1 million.

As the increasing growth of the company continues under Toriola’s watch, in the first half of 2022, MTN Nigeria’s Profit After Tax (PAT) grew by 28.1% to N181.6 billion from N141.8 billion in the same period in 2021. MTN Nigeria, which is now worth over N5 trillion, is also now more valuable than the Nigerian Financial Services sector which includes banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, with a combined value of N4 trillion.

To describe Toriola’s drive, relentless might be an appropriate word. His sight is set on bigger goals and many believe he’s not just consolidating the success, he’s setting the bar so high for himself and the company. 

In August 2022, MTN Nigeria became the first telco to launch the 5G network in Nigeria, he told us that winning the 5G license, the closure and success of the oversubscribed public offer and getting MTN Nigeria back to a place where it’s being liked and loved, are atop the list of his remarkable accomplishments in his first 18 months as CEO.

“If you want to speak about the single day where I had probably the highest elation from my job, it was probably the day after we won the 5G license. For me, that was a very interesting day,” Toriola said, as MTN remains the only telco that has launched the 5G network in Nigeria and West Africa.

He credits the accomplishments to “tapping into everyone, from the board to the senior management and every layer of the organisation, to drive the success and make them feel that they own the success along with everyone in this organisation.”

Of all his achievements in 18 months, one of the most sacrosanct, perhaps, is getting MTN Nigeria back to a place it is loved by customers and regulators.

Toriola told us “everyone loves to hate two service providers, the telco and the bank, and to get them (customers) to start to like and love you and give you some respect; I think it’s a tremendous achievement.”

He’s now leading MTN Nigeria to a level where customers and regulators now respect the brand more than ever.

“I think a few other things which really gave me some excitement are the closure and the success of the public offer, the visit to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari and the warm reception we received coming from the history of MTN,” he said with excitement.

Since that time, MTN’s reach and coverage have only grown and it is now transiting from a telco to a tech company.

Toriola unlocked a new level as a CEO who has his ears on the pulse of the customers when he appeared in a 70-second video on Sunday, October 17, 2021, apologising to customers for network downtime on its network on Saturday, October 9, 2021.

“Last Saturday we had an outage that left our customers without connection for several hours. On behalf of the entire MTN team, I want to start with a heartfelt apology. We are truly sorry for the disruption this caused for so many in our MTN family,” he said in the broadcast.

The commendations that followed that action give a glimpse of how Nigerians appreciate those who identify with them and take actions that show they feel the pains of the ordinary citizen and truly. In over 18 months, Toriola cannot be said to have struck a pose of indifference from this.

As he spoke to us on Monday, September 26, 2022, sitting at the exact spot where he spoke to Nigerians in October 2021, Toriola believes there’s still a long journey ahead and he doesn’t whistle past this thought.

MTN Nigeria has become so large and varied that it is difficult to truly call it just a telecom company. The line between MTN as a telco and as a tech company has become so blurry, and Toriola said “the truth is, we still don’t know 100% what the future will look like in 10 years. With ultra-high-speed connectivity, digital services, and financial services, it’s something we’re going to figure out along with our customers. 

He also hinted that “a lot of new business cases are going to evolve that we have no idea of today.”

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says MTN Nigeria has 76.9 million subscribers, and about 55.9% (63.75 million) of Nigeria’s 152 million internet users (as of August 2022) are on the MTN network. Add the newly launched Mobile Money Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) to the portfolio, and MTN’s entry into the FinTech space is, at a minimum, a great leap for Nigeria’s financial inclusion target of 95% by 2024.

With 60% of Nigeria’s unbanked population using mobile phones and are already connected to big telcos like MTN, experts believe there’s no stopping the telco giant.

“Mobile money, the way we are operating it, at least in the early years, is going to strengthen the traditional banks incredibly and accelerate financial inclusion at an unprecedented pace,” Toriola told us with the charisma of a salesman. “We were just awarded a full license in April this year. We are already opening accounts, engaging with customers, and expanding the connectivity across our systems.”

Since the launch of MTN’s MoMo PSB on May 19, 2022, it has registered 4.2 million wallets with about 2.4 million active users — generating transaction volumes of approximately 7 million.

Toriola said “over the next one to three years, you’re going to see a tremendous acceleration, and you will see the direct impact it has on both the traditional banking system and the Nigerian economy as a whole.” 

As the world heads into the future with tech causing a huge disruption, Karl Toriola believes that no one is certain of what the future of business holds but he strongly advised young people to focus on tech, media and entertainment.

“People say what’s the path to success for the youth? There’s no guaranteed path; if there was, there would be no mystery to life. The truth is, content creation and entertainment are incredibly profitable as a source of business,” Toriola told us. “The ability to build and manage relationships to interconnect all of those things, so social skills are also going to be incredibly important for people to succeed in the future.”

Sitting atop as the CEO of Nigeria’s biggest telco may come with its intoxicant and Toriola is not oblivious to that, he told us his wife Ronke Toriola-Omisakin puts him in check and balance “to ensure that I don’t get ahead of myself with ego. I’m very well grounded; I know where I’m coming from.”

He added: “Someone once told me there are no bad men; there are men not held in check by the environment around them, which effectively is your wife and family.”

Although CEOs’ spouses play no formal role in the running of organisations, several schools of thought believe they can have a tremendous impact on the success of their partners and the organisation. 

Karl Toriola believes that when the fanfare that comes with the CEO office finally ends, “and what do you come back to? You come back to your family. And it’s important to always remember that and to ensure that you’ve built something beyond your career that gives you a real sense of inner satisfaction.”

Toriola and Ronke’s love story upends an agelong communal rivalry between Ife where Ronke hails from and Modakeke.

“We met at the university at the age of around 19 and dated for a while. Ronke Toriola-Omisakin likes retaining her maiden name, which is great because her family is also an important part of her journey and my journey as well. We’ve been married for 27 years. Our anniversary was just a few days ago,” Toriola told us.

“We were both in OAU, and interestingly enough, we are from two very opposing and fighting tribes. So a Modakeke man married an Ife woman,” Toriola said

Ife and Modakeke, two neighbouring communities in Osun state have one of the oldest communal rivalries in the history of Yorubaland, southwest Nigeria.

Beginning in 1835, the two communities were constantly at war for more than a century. From 1835-1849, 1882-1909, 1946- 1949, 1981, 1983, 1997-1998, and 2000, their fierce battle led to an estimated casualty of about 5,000 people.

The wars may have ended but the relationship between the two towns is still frosty, which has made communal activities, marriage and business between the two towns difficult.

“Our parents actually knew that my wife and I are very strong-willed, and once we have decided, they could say or do anything they want, we are going to have our way. So they decided pretty quickly that these ones are a couple, and they’re going to support it fully,” Toriola said.

The line between the personal and professional lives of CEOs has become blurry, and Toriola admits that being a CEO doesn’t afford you much time for anything else. 

“You find yourself working on the weekends, in formal engagement about work all the time and working late hours. This is the time to put in the heavy lifting in terms of work, and when I’m done with this job, I can go into some form of semi-retirement,” he said.

Toriola still tries to create time for his hobbies – fishing and watching Formula One, his all-time favourite sport. When he tried to add football to his list of favourite sports, he got his hands burnt by supporting Arsenal FC, the English football team that has suffered years of woeful performances that has left its fans heartbroken.

“I’m a very wishy-washy football fan. I followed Arsenal for a number of years until they frustrated me, then I moved to Liverpool,” he said. “But one sport I’m fanatic about. It is the sport I’ve always really liked – Formula One. I’m a huge fan of Lewis Hamilton and Formula One in general. Even before Lewis Hamilton, F1 has always been the sport I follow.

“But I am in extreme admiration of Lewis Hamilton. Seven-time world champion, the first black person to enter that spot. He has had to face incredible prejudice, including his eighth world championship being stolen from him. And he always comports himself with such dignity,” Karl Toriola said as he describes his affinity to Formula 1 and Lewis Hamilton.

Looking at his royal background and his 81-year-old father’s recent ascent to the throne as the Ogunsua of Modakeke in April 2022, 13 months after Toriola took over at MTN Plaza, it may be a bit hard to understand that he does not see himself as an heir to the throne.

Karl Toriola didn’t admit he’s on the succession line. 

“Let me just assure you; I’m not an ‘Obalola’ (a future King). The royal title where I’m from is awarded through seniority. And my father, who became king, started on that journey 40-something years ago. I haven’t even gotten on the rung of the ladder, and I don’t have any intention to, so that’s out of the question.”

One of Toriola’s new interests is refreshing his knowledge of Nigeria’s history.

“I’ve increasingly started to read more about the history of Nigeria again. We’re all educated about it in our primary and secondary education. But I recently read President Olusegun Obasanjo’s ‘My Watch’ again. For some reason, I just feel like there are gaps in my knowledge about the history of Nigeria that I want to come and fill in,” Karl Toriola told us.

 

 

Interview By: Yusuf Omotayo and Michael Orodare

Photos: Oluwaseyifunmitan Adeyemi