From Engineer to Telecom Kingmaker: The Karl Toriola Story

On March 16, 1972, in Ile Ife, Osun State, a boy was born at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital into a family that carried centuries of tradition. Karl Olutokun Toriola would spend his early years in Modakeke, where his father, Oba Joseph Olubiyi Toriola, would later ascend as the 20th Ogunsua of the town. His heritage gave him roots, but his future would be built far from the palace walls, in server rooms and boardrooms.

After excelling in science at school, Toriola entered Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, earning a degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in 1994. That same year, he left for Europe, where his Swiss mother’s ties offered him a wider horizon. In Swansea, at the University of Wales, he secured a master’s in Communication Systems by 1996.

It was a time when mobile phones were still clunky devices, symbols of status rather than necessities of life. Yet Toriola was entering the field at a moment when the telecom industry was about to explode across Africa. Talk about time and chance.

He started his career at Ericsson in Switzerland as a Switching Support Engineer, gaining the hands-on grounding that would define his style of leadership. By 2000, he was back in Nigeria, this time with Ericsson Nigeria, at the heart of the country’s GSM revolution. Nigerians were moving from waiting in long queues at NITEL offices to holding their own mobile lines. Engineers like Toriola were wiring that future into place.

By 2004, he had joined Vmobile Nigeria (later Airtel) as Chief Operations Officer, overseeing a technical team that was critical in scaling network access. Two years later, he made a move that would define his career. MTN tapped him as an operations consultant for Irancell, and by October 2006, he was back in Lagos as MTN Nigeria’s Chief Technical Officer.

It was no small task. Nigeria’s network was ballooning, and keeping it stable amid erratic power supply and heavy demand required not only technical expertise but also political skill. His leadership brought recognition. In 2009, MTN Nigeria earned awards for Best CTO and Best Network.

From there, the trajectory sharpened. In 2011, he briefly served as interim CEO of MTN Congo Brazzaville before taking the helm in Cameroon.

As CEO of MTN Cameroon, Toriola oversaw real expansion. The company’s market share grew from 51 to 62 percent. He secured 3G and 4G licenses, negotiated fiber connectivity deals, and ensured the government had partial ownership of the WACS submarine cable system, making MTN indispensable in Cameroon’s digital infrastructure. His leadership also won the company Investors in People Gold certification, the first for an MTN subsidiary.

By 2015, he was Group Operating Executive, managing 12 countries. A year later, he became Vice President for West and Central Africa, extending his influence across a dozen markets.

In October 2020, MTN Group named him CEO of MTN Nigeria, the Group’s crown jewel and largest subsidiary. He officially assumed the role in March 2021.

It was a stormy period. Nigeria’s economy was in flux. There was currency devaluation eating into profits and regulatory battles leaving investors skittish. Under his watch, MTN Nigeria not only steadied itself but rebounded. In the first half of 2025, the company reported ₦414.9 billion in profit, a sharp turnaround from a ₦519.1 billion loss the year before.

That resilience caught MTN Group’s eye once again. In August 2025, the Group announced a leadership reshuffle. Effective November 1, Toriola would continue as CEO of MTN Nigeria while also serving as Vice President for Francophone Africa, overseeing markets like Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal.

Despite his royal lineage and corporate stature, Karl Toriola cuts a grounded figure. He speaks English, French, German, and Yoruba with ease, reflecting both his Nigerian-Swiss heritage and his cross-border career.

He is also disarmingly candid about his personal life. “I married my university sweetheart,” he once said, speaking of Ronke Omisakin, now his wife of 27 years. Their story is a parable of unity: a Modakeke man marrying an Ife woman, from two historically divided communities. Those who know of the history of the two neighbours would be astonished. Beginning in 1835, the two communities were constantly at war for more than a century. “We were strong-willed,” he recalled. “Once we had decided, nothing could change our minds. Our parents soon realized it was better to support us fully.”

Their only child, Damilola, an Imperial College graduate, is pursuing her own path in STEM. Toriola speaks of her with unmistakable pride: “She is strong-willed, independent-minded. I know she will do great things.”

Away from the boardroom, his sanctuary is water. While many CEOs flock to golf courses or polo grounds, Toriola prefers fishing. “I enjoy fishing. I’m an avid fisherman. That’s my hobby,” he admitted in a recent interview. The focus and quiet that fishing demands mirror the qualities he brings into corporate life. He mentioned how he tried his hands on football with Arsenal and frustration drove him away.

Toriola’s professional credentials are equally weighty. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and a member of COREN. He sits on the Governing Council of Lagos State University, serves as a director at UAC of Nigeria Plc, and has held board roles with Jumia and American Towers.

His compensation reflects his stature. According to NairaMetrics, he ranks among the top 10 highest-paid CEOs in Nigeria, alongside figures like Ebenezer Onyeagwu of Zenith Bank and Seun Agbaje of GTCO. Karl earned N850 million in 2022, N1.6 billion in 2023, and at N3.2 billion in 2024, he is the highest paid employee in Nigeria. In case you care, his compensation in 2024 amounts to N8.5 million per day.

But Toriola himself often downplays wealth and status. “All this fanfare, position, it goes away someday,” he once reflected. “What do you come back to? Family. That’s what grounds me.”

As he steps into his dual role, Toriola carries both Nigeria’s weight and Africa’s expectations. MTN Group’s strategy, Ambition 2025, is banking on leaders like him to expand broadband across a continent where connectivity is both an opportunity and a political tool.

Karl Toriola’s story is not only about telecom towers and profit margins. It is about how a boy from Modakeke, with a Swiss mother and Nigerian father, grew into a multilingual, globe-traveling executive, and how he has balanced personal conviction with corporate ambition.

He is at once the fisherman who waits patiently for a bite and the strategist who knows when to reel in. The prince who married across divides. The executive who has proven that Nigerian leadership can shape Africa’s corporate giants.

And in the years ahead, when the lights on MTN’s network blink across Francophone Africa and Nigeria, they will also tell the story of the man steering them — Karl Olutokun Toriola.