The Chief Finance Officer and Executive Director of MTN Ghana, Antoinette Kwofie, has shared the remarkable and almost mystical series of events that led her to one of the top positions at one of Ghana’s leading telecommunications companies, despite not actively job-hunting at the time.
Speaking on JoyFM’s Personality Profile with Lexis Bill, Mrs Kwofie described her career transition into MTN as a moment guided by grace and fate.
“I like to believe. I call myself a product of grace,” she said. “The way the whole recruitment process happened… I believe the job was waiting for me.”
According to her, the journey began when a personal friend, who was also one of her auditors, unexpectedly requested her CV.
She stated that though she was not seeking new opportunities, she obliged, only to later discover the role was with MTN.
“I gave him my CV. I didn’t hear anything. Then someone else said MTN was still asking for my CV. Later, a headhunter from Kenya reached out. Then another one from the US. In all, no less than ten headhunters contacted me about the same MTN role.”
Despite the interest, Mrs Kwofie revealed that she was not called for an interview for a long time.
Eventually, the first person who had requested her CV informed her that MTN wanted to “have a chat.”
She said that casual chat turned out to be the beginning of a multi-stage vetting process involving the company’s Chief HR Officer, the CEO, the CEO’s boss, and even the group CFO.
“I didn’t prepare for any of them. I thought they were just chats. But when I got to the CEO’s boss, it felt like a real interview. I was in an air-conditioned room, but I was sweating,” she recalled with a laugh.
Following the last conversation, Mrs Kwofie said she did not hear anything for months and assumed she had been passed over, until a chance encounter at a funeral changed everything.
“I bumped into the Chief HR Officer. She said, ‘you’ll hear from us.’ I said, ‘I’ve forgotten about you people.’ But a few weeks later, they called and said, ‘You have the role. Let’s talk money.’”
Even then, she hesitated. Kwofie was in a comfortable banking role with promising prospects, including a secondment opportunity. But the idea of entering the FinTech space intrigued her.
“It was a tough decision. But I asked myself, where will I be in the next three years if I stay and where will I be if I go?”