Museveni allows deported MTN CEO to return to Uganda

Ugandan authorities have allowed the Chief Executive Officer of the MTN unit in the country to return, more than three months after he was deported.

A company official told Reuters Wim Vanhelleputte was scheduled to return to Uganda on Thursday, having been given the green light by president Yoweri Museveni.

“We have been formally notified, we got a letter and it was the president who requested the minister of internal affairs to write and allow him (CEO) to come immediately and he is coming today,” MTN Uganda’s chairman, Charles Mbire, told Reuters by phone.

He said Vanhelleputte would resume his duties as CEO of MTN Uganda, a unit of South African telecoms group MTN.

Vanhelleputte was deported by the East African country on Feb. 15 due to “national security” concerns, police said at the time, without giving details.

REUTERS