Former MTN boss moves to Nairobi as Airtel Africa head

 

An Airtel shop in Nairobi. The firm has named a new chief executive for its Africa arm. FILE 

By NEVILLE OTUKI

Bharti Airtel Wednesday named a new chief executive for its Africa arm as it seeks fresh road maps to turn around the continent’s operations.

Christian de Faria, who has been with South African telecom firm MTN, will take over as chief executive officer from January 1, 2014, the company said in a statement.

Mr Faria will join Airtel Africa Sep 16, 2013 and report to Manoj Kohli, managing director and CEO (International), in-charge of Airtel’s operations in Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who will relocate to India on January 1, 2014 from Nairobi.

Bharti, which entered Africa in 2010 with a $9 billion acquisition of Zain, has yet to make its operations there profitable and the debt it took on to fund the purchase has weighed on its earnings.

As CEO, Airtel Africa, Faria will be based out of Nairobi and lead the growth agenda across markets and build key skills and capabilities within the organisation, said Airtel.

“We have built a strong foundation for the next phase of growth of our Africa operations and are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead,” Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Airtel, said in the statement.

“Manoj has successfully embedded our business model and the Airtel brand in Africa, and will now provide governance oversight to the international operations and be involved with the group strategic matters.”

Mr Kohli has shepherded Airtel’s Africa business since the firm entered Africa in 2010 and now India’s number one mobile phone operator has added Airtel Bangladesh and Airtel Sri Lanka to his continent’s portfolio.

Mr Faria served as the group chief commercial officer at MTN until the end of January when he moved to the United Arab Emirates as a consultant.

The announcement of the new Africa head comes weeks after Bharti Airtel redeployed 100 employees based at its Africa headquarters on Mombasa Road in Nairobi to country offices in what it termed as a move to strengthen its operations in Africa.

(READ: Airtel sends half of Africa staff to country bases)

This has reduced the number of its employees at the headquarters by half. Officials said those redeployed cut across all departments, including legal, finance, procurement, marketing and sales.

But some of the employees who did not want to change location due to personal reasons opted for early retirement, according to company officials.

This was the first major staff overhaul Bharti Airtel has carried out at its Africa headquarters since it bought stake in Zain.