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Bharti Airtel, which offers cellular services in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, on Wednesday, announced new structure in Africa operations to move into a cluster-based model targeting faster growth. In the new structure, all operating countries will be clustered into four strategic business units (SBUs) whose leaders will report into the managing director and chief executive officer (Africa operations). The new structure will be effective from 1 April 2014.
The company has appointed V G Somasekhar as executive operations director of the SBU clustering Zambia, Congo B, Malawi, Burkina, Niger, Chad, Madagascar and Seychelles. Somasekhar has been managing director for Airtel Uganda since December 2010.
Christophe Soulet has been appointed as executive operations director for the second SBU consisting of Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Rwanda.
“These two business leaders have distinguished themselves with their exceptional understanding of the African telecoms landscape. We will leverage their experience, leadership and understanding of the African market to accelerate our market leadership opportunities and develop team capabilities as we seek to take our brand to the next level,” Christian de Faria, CEO, Airtel Africa, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Segun Ogunsanya and Louis Lubala will continue to lead Nigeria and DRC, the other two business units.
Arindam Chakrabarty, currently chief commercial officer for Airtel Uganda, will be acting as the managing director until a new MD is appointed.
Bharti Airtel operates in 17 countries across Africa and is the fourth-largest operators in the continent with 63.7 million subscribers.
