Airtel Nigeria Appoints Chief Officers for Commercial, Technical Functions

In furtherance of its commitment to consistently deliver excellent service to its consumers by attracting and engaging world class professionals in its workforce,Airtel Nigeria, has announced the appointment of Mohamed Ghidan as its Chief Technical &Information Technology Officer (CTIO) and Maurice Newa as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

This is coming barely two weeks after the leading telcoannounced the appointment of two Nigerians,Ms. Vera Ogwa Onoja, former Zonal Business Manager for North Central, Nigeria, as Regional Operations Director for Dar es Salaam, Airtel Tanzania; and Mr. Oladapo Sorinolu, former Head of Corporate and Enterprise in Nigeria as Enterprise Director for Airtel Uganda.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, said the appointment is a reflection of the company’s commitment to providing exceptional customer service and innovative mobile telephony solutions to Nigerians because Airtel is truly passionate about realizing its vision of becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians.

According to Ogunsanya, the restructuring of the company’s commercial, Network and IT functions is aimed at improving its Quality of Service (QoS), transformation of its Information Technology, marketing and customer service delivery functions, also ensuring that all its customers enjoy the very best mobile telephony experience.

Airtel is committed to building a proudly African company that will provide amazing opportunities for the development of local talents and also passionate about creating top leadership positions for accomplished Nigerian and African professionals, Ogunsanya explained.

Newa has over 21 years professional experience spanning a broad spectrum of General Management, Business Strategy, Marketing, Product Development, Sales & Distribution and Customer Service functions.He joined Airtel Nigeria from Airtel Malawi where he was the Deputy Managing Director. Prior to joining the Airtel Group, he was previously Group Marketing Director – Operations for Africa and subsequently Chief Commercial Officer during the Celtel/Zain years

He was also Director, Marketing Strategy & Customer Care, Safaricom between August, 2011 to June, 2012, and Chief Operating Officer, Mobile Telecommunication Limited (MTC), Namibia, between April 2010 and 2011.Before his stint in the telecom industry, Newa had previously worked at Management level for many blue chip FMCG companies on the continent including BAT, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola Company& Unilever. Newa is a graduate of Economics from The University of Malawi and has attended short courses at the London Business School and INSEAD.

Prior to joining Airtel, Mohammed Ghidan was the Chief Technology Officer of Orascom Telecom Algerie S.P.A. (VimpelCom) in Algeria where he led the Network and IT of the number one GSM operator in Algeria which serves 17M subscribers. Prior to this, Ghidan had worked in a multinational environment having dealt with different Mobile/Fixed Operations in different countries (Greece, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Egypt, Canada and North Korea).

With over 23 years of professional experience within telecommunication field, Ghidan is a graduate of Electric and Electronic Engineering from Menufia University and has worked and received trainings in several countries such as: Egypt, USA, Netherlands, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Greece and Algeria).