AXIAN Telecom, one of Africa’s leading pan-African telecommunications groups, has announced, on July 15, the appointment of Hannafi Cissé as Chief Executive Officer of Yas in Senegal (formerly Free Senegal), effective August 1, 2025. This appointment is highly symbolic for the seasoned executive, marking a return to Senegal, the country where he grew up, for this Niger-born strategist with a strong pan-African trajectory.
Yas Senegal is a subsidiary of the Malagasy multinational AXIAN Telecom, currently the 6th largest mobile operator in Africa, serving over 40 million customers. A pan-African telecommunications service provider, AXIAN Telecom operates in nine countries: Tanzania, Madagascar, Togo, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Réunion, Mayotte, and the Comoros. The group operates across three core segments: mobile and fixed networks, digital infrastructure, and mobile financial services.
Extensive expertise in telecommunications.
At 42 years old, Hannafi Cissé stands out for his deep expertise in telecommunications and technology, sectors in which he has consistently demonstrated strategic rigor, operational excellence, and a sharp sense of innovation.
Before taking the helm at YAS Senegal, Cissé served as executive director of mergers & acquisitions at AXIAN Telecom. In this role, he was one of the key architects of the group’s pan-African expansion, leading major external growth initiatives.
He spent most of his career at the Orange Group, where he held various senior leadership positions, combining high-level operational and financial responsibilities in France, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, and most recently in Paris, where he was deputy chief financial officer of Orange Middle East & Africa. There, he oversaw strategic planning, financial performance, and growth in a region undergoing rapid digital transformation.
Hannafi Cissé holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School and is a telecommunications and applied mathematics engineer from ENSIMAG (Grenoble Institute of Technology). He embodies a rare leadership profile that blends academic excellence, international experience, and deep African roots.
His appointment in Dakar, within a country he considers his true home, reflects the ambition of forward-thinking groups like AXIAN to place African talent at the heart of the continent’s transformation and to help build the connected Africa of today and tomorrow.
