"The job was waiting for me": MTN Ghana CFO shares journey into telecoms

Antoinette Kwofie is the Chief Finance Officer and Executive Director of MTN Ghana. She recently shared her unexpected journey to this top position. Remarkably, she was not actively job-hunting at the time.

In an interview on JoyFM’s Personality Profile with Lexis Bill, Mrs. Kwofie described her career transition as guided by grace and fate. “I like to believe. I call myself a product of grace,” she said. She felt that the job was waiting for her.

Her journey began when a personal friend, who was also one of her auditors, asked for her CV. Although she wasn’t looking for new opportunities, she sent it over. Later, she found out that the role was with MTN.

“I gave him my CV but didn’t hear anything,” she explained. Then someone else mentioned that MTN wanted her CV again. Eventually, headhunters from Kenya and the US reached out to her about the same role.

Despite all this interest, Mrs. Kwofie did not receive an interview invitation for a long time. Finally, the person who requested her CV told her that MTN wanted to “have a chat.” This casual chat led to a multi-stage vetting process with several executives at MTN.

“I didn’t prepare for any of them,” she recalled with a laugh. She thought they were just informal chats until reaching the CEO’s boss, where it felt like a real interview. “I was in an air-conditioned room but sweating.”

After their last conversation, Mrs. Kwofie heard nothing for months and assumed she had been overlooked. Then, at a funeral, she bumped into the Chief HR Officer who said, “You’ll hear from us.” She replied that she had forgotten about them.

A few weeks later, they called and offered her the role along with salary discussions. Even then, Mrs. Kwofie hesitated because she had a comfortable banking job with good prospects and potential secondment opportunities.

However, entering the FinTech space intrigued her greatly. “It was a tough decision,” she admitted. She asked herself where she'd be in three years if she stayed versus if she left.