RABAT (Reuters) – The supervisory board of Maroc Telecom, Morocco’s leading telecoms operator, appointed on Tuesday former finance minister Mohamed Benchaaboun as chair of the management board, replacing long-serving Abdeslam Ahizoune.
Ahizoune led the company for 27 years as it expanded its operations in Africa with subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Togo.
The appointment came after the company was ordered to pay a fine of $630 million to its competitor Wana Corporate, better known by its brand name Inwi, for unfair competition practices.
The fine exceeds Maroc Telecom’s 2023 profit of 6.1 billion dirhams.
Maroc Telecom, which is listed on the Casablanca stock exchange and on Euronext Paris, is 53% controlled by the UAE’s Etisalat while the Moroccan state holds a 22% stake.
(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
