Aminata Ndiaye Niang has been appointed deputy CEO of Sonatel, effective January 1, 2023. She is also senior vice president at Orange Middle East and Africa.
The leading telecommunications operator in Senegal, 42% owned by the Orange Group, the Sonatel Group offers global telecommunications solutions in the areas of fixed-line, mobile, Internet, television and data services for individuals and businesses. The group, leader in Senegal, has been present in Mali since 2002, in Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau since 2007 and in Sierra Leone since 2016. The group has 36 million customers, 8.8 million active Orange Money subscribers and has achieved revenues of CFAF 1,206 billion for the 2021 financial year.
Aminata Ndiaye Niang is a double graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Paris.
She joined the Orange Group in Paris in 2004, after being co-opted into a dedicated talent program. Previously, she began her career at Accenture in change management.
At the end of 2018, Sonatel Group says, she led the consolidation of Orange Middle East & Africa’s marketing, customer experience and digital transformation activities, becoming director of marketing, digital & customer experience, coordinating 18 countries, representing 135 million customers and more than €6 billion in revenues. In this capacity, we indicate, in connection with the country teams, she pilots the challenges of revenue budget with achievements beyond the assigned objectives making Orange Middle East & Africa the first growth area of the group.
Aminata Ndiaye Niang also leads transformation programs to adapt the organization to the disruptions in the ecosystem.
As part of the zone’s digital and data transformation program, she is launching two Data Squads based in Jordan and Côte d’Ivoire that rely on local talent to implement innovative and value-creating solutions using data and artificial intelligence (AI).
Various leadership positions successfully held
Previously, Sonatel Group says, Aminata Ndiaye Niang has successfully held various leadership positions within Sonatel Group. In 2013, she was appointed to Sonatel’s executive committee as director of consumer marketing, driving 60% of the company’s revenue with performance above budget and generating more than 75% of the market value. She also holds the position of Deputy General Manager of Sonatel mobiles and is a member of several Sonatel Group subsidiary boards.
In 2015, Aminata Ndiaye Niang was appointed head of the relaunch of the Orange Money business, in addition to her role as marketing director. She then successfully launched a new division (distribution, marketing, operations, compliance). The acceleration plan she put in place resulted in an 18-fold increase in revenues and a market share that rose from 4% to 37%, thus gaining leadership in the money transfer market. The business is now profitable after 5 years of losses.
Furthermore, Sonatel continues, the benchmark performance delivered by its teams in customer base management has made its entity a regional center of competence operating for 6 countries. The scope of this center has since been extended to cover the whole of Africa and the Middle East.
Sonatel’s digital transformation
At the end of 2017, in parallel to her other roles, Aminata Ndiaye Niang launched the new organization in charge of steering Sonatel’s digital transformation in collaboration with the information system department. A joint team (business and IT) working with agile methods was then set up to execute the new digital roadmap and drive acculturation across the company.
Today, Aminata Ndiaye Niang also holds various mandates. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Orange DRC and Orange Sierra Leone.
Since 2020, she sits on the Supervisory Board of Jumia Technologies AG, the pan-African e-commerce platform listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Jumia operates in 11 African countries.
She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the International Center of Artificial Intelligence of Morocco.
As a volunteer, she is the President of X-Africa for Women, an initiative to support young African girls in their Science & Tech careers.
