The Chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and former Group Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr Phuthuma Nhleko, is set to headline the Boardroom Governance Summit (BGS) 2026 in Accra, where he will deliver a Special Address on building enduring African institutions, strategic leadership and effective corporate governance.
Having transformed MTN into Africa’s largest mobile telecommunications group, Mr Nhleko brings valuable boardroom experience and insights into building institutions that deliver lasting impact. The summit takes place on Thursday, 12 November 2026, at the Labadi Beach Hotel, under the theme “Board Committees: From Oversight to Impact.”
Some leaders run companies. A rare few build institutions that change a continent. Mr Phuthuma Nhleko belongs firmly among the few. The Boardroom Governance Summit (BGS) Africa is proud to announce that Mr Nhleko, Chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), former Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group, and Chairman of the Pembani Group, will deliver a Special Address at the Boardroom Governance Summit 2026.
His story is one of African ambition realised on a global scale. When he took the helm of MTN in 2002, few imagined that an African company could one day connect hundreds of millions of people across the continent and the Middle East. By 2011, he had led it to become Africa’s largest mobile telecommunications group, proof that world-class enterprise can be built on African soil by African hands. He returned as Group Chairman from 2013 to 2019, and when the company faced one of its sternest tests in 2015 and 2016, he stepped forward as interim executive chairman, steadying the ship with the calm authority and governance discipline that have become his hallmark.
Today, as Chairman of the JSE since 2022, he presides over Africa’s largest stock exchange and stands as a guardian of trust in the continent’s capital markets. He founded the Pembani Group in 1994, at the dawn of South Africa’s democracy, and built it into an industrial holding company with interests in oil and gas, minerals, metals and infrastructure across Africa. In 2012, he established the Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund to invest in the infrastructure the continent needs to grow. His boardroom journey has taken him through BP plc, Anglo American and Tullow Oil plc, and he serves today on the board of IHS Towers. An engineer by training and a graduate of The Ohio State University, he unites technical rigour, financial mastery and bold strategic vision in a way few leaders on any continent can match.
That is what makes this address a must-attend moment. Few leaders anywhere have sat at the head of the table of both a continental corporate champion and a major securities exchange. Delegates will hear, from someone who has lived it, how great boards and the committees that serve them move beyond ticking boxes to become engines of accountability, long-term value and lasting impact. For every chairperson, director, chief executive, regulator and aspiring board leader in Africa, this is a rare opportunity to learn from the very best.
“Phuthuma Nhleko is living proof that Africa does not need to borrow excellence. It can build it,” said Ing. Prof. Douglas Boateng, Founder and Convenor of the Boardroom Governance Summit. “He took an African idea to the world and showed that when a board is courageous, disciplined and committed to future generations, there is no limit to what an African institution can achieve. His special address at BGS 2026 is a call to every boardroom on this continent to raise its ambition. Our board committees must stop being mere instruments of oversight and become engines of impact. I urge every chairperson, director and executive who believes in Africa’s future to be in the room on 12 November. You will leave inspired, challenged and equipped to lead differently.”
About Boardroom Governance Summit 2026
The Boardroom Governance Summit is the largest boardroom-focused one-day summit on the African continent, bringing together chairpersons, directors, chief executives, regulators, investors and governance professionals from across Africa and beyond. BGS 2026 will be chaired by HE Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Presidential Special Envoy on Reparation and Diaspora Relations, with Hon Dr Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff, as Special Guest of Honour, amongst others. The programme features high-level panels on the roles of the chairperson, ESG, and finance and audit committees in delivering board effectiveness.
The summit is run on a not-for-profit, cost recovery basis. The delegate fee of GHS 2,500 covers full summit access, breakfast, lunch and a copy of Practical Perspectives on the Committees of the Board by Ing. Prof. Douglas Boateng, and is reclaimable as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for members of partner professional bodies. The summit will also be live-streamed on Zoom, with every streaming participant receiving a digital certificate of participation that qualifies for CPD with recognised professional bodies.
Registration: www.boardroomgovsummit.com/registration