Outgoing Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA
Indian telecoms
giant Bharti Airtel has appointed its Bangladesh boss to head the Kenyan
office following exit of the Kenyan CEO Adil El Youssefi.
Mr El Youssefi’s exit comes amid a looming re-organisation of the Bharti Airtel business in Africa.
The
Indian telecoms giant is set to sell stakes or merge some of its
African units in a bid to stay afloat and reduce its debt burden.
Airtel
veteran Prasanta Das Sarma, formerly the chief executive of Airtel
Bangladesh, will be expected to revive fortunes of the troubled Kenyan
operator.
“Airtel Kenya today announced the
appointment of Prasanta Das Sarma as Managing Director. He will take
over from Adil Youssefi who has decided to pursue external opportunities
post the completion of his contract period,” said the telecoms firm in a
statement.
Change fortunes
Airtel
Africa managing director and chief executive officer, Raghunath
Mandava, said the operator is banking on Mr Sarma’s “experience in
Airtel” to change its sagging fortunes.
“I am pleased
to announce the appointment of Prasanta as Managing Director for the
Kenya operation. Prasanta is a seasoned professional with over 31 years
of experience in the technology sector,” said Mr Mandava.
“He
has handled key assignments as well as business leadership roles. I am
confident that under (his) leadership, our plans will gather further
momentum and we look forward to delivering an even better experience to
millions of customers across the country.”
The exiting Kenya CEO replaced Shivan Bhargava in 2014.
He joined the mobile operator from Ghana-based Millicom Group where he had been the general manager since June 2012.
Last
September, Mr Youssefi stirred the local telecoms market after he said
his company could exit the Kenyan market if new regulations were not
passed to curb what he termed as dominance by market leader, Safaricom.
“We
have been trying for over five years and have not made one dollar in
profit. Airtel is likely to exit Kenya if the market structure is not
addressed in terms of dominance,” said Mr Youssefi.
14 years ago
The new Kenya head joined Airtel 14 years ago in 2002 and has served in various capacities.
Prior
to the Bangladesh posting, he was the Hub CEO of the Eastern Hub of
Airtel’s business in India and has also served as a vice-president,
Network & Customer Service.
“His career started in
1985 and he has primarily been involved with technology related
organisations. PD is a Telecom Engineer and holds an MBA in Finance,” it
said.
Airtel has operations in 15 African markets including Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda.
It
has struggled to crack the African market, forcing it to divest from
some loss¬making countries such as Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.
Reduce footprint
Airtel chairman and owner Mr Sunil Bharti recently indicated that Airtel plans to reduce its footprint in Africa within a year.
A
statement sent by the Airtel Africa corporate communications did not
however disclose the specific countries that will be affected by the
stake sales and mergers.
It remains unclear whether the Kenyan unit will be affected.
The
telco has said that divestments and sale of tower assets saw the firm,
in the half year to September, reduce the losses from African operation
to $91 million (Sh9.4 billion) compared to $170 million (Sh17.5 billion)
during a similar period in 2015.
Airtel Kenya last
month announced the second staff retrenchment within a year, raising
questions on the firm’s ability to mount a challenge on market leader
Safaricom.
The telecommunications firm sent home 100
of its staff in what it termed a “strategic organisational restructuring
to improve efficiency across function.”
The latest redundancy added to the 60 others that the telco let go in January 2016.
bnjoroge@ke.nationmedia.com
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