Chilima to head Airtel in Malawi
Malawian marketing guru, Saulosi Chilima has been appointed managing director for Bharti Airtel, formerly Zain Malawi.
The rebranding of Zain Malawi to Bharti Airtel is expected to take place between September and October this year alongside all Zain African operations that Kuwaiti Telecoms has sold off to Bharti.
CEO for Bharti Airtel, Manoj Kohli, said in a statement made available to Nyasa Times that Chilima has been elevated from the position of Sales and Distribution Director to be head the biggest mobile phone network provider in Malawi, with about two-million subscribers from August 1.
“During his tenure as sales director for Zain Malawi since September 2006, the company was awarded ‘OPCO of the Year 2008’ as well as ‘Initiative of the Year’ with the Quick Refill Centers (QRC) concept,” Airtel boss said.
Airtel said in the statement that Chilima, a University of Malawi graduate who holds a master’s degree in economics takes over from Fayaz Kings, who has “ably led Malawi as the MD with excellent results.”
King will head Airtel in Zambia.
The statement said Chilima will be “responsible for the overall business strategy and successful implementation of market leadership initiatives in Malawi.”
Bharti Airtel has signed a takeover agreement for Zain Malawi, pledging to invest $100-million to upgrade the network.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Bharti Airtel and the Malawi government commits the former to investing the money in order to increase the number of mobile phone users in Malawi, which currently stands at 3.5- million, by 50%.
The MoU also commits Bharti Airtel to ensuring that it penetrates rural areas.
Bharti is reported to have coughed up $700-million to acquire Zain Malawi.
this is empowerment for the youth.Congratulations Saulos.You join a group of young proffessional Managers in Malawi like Bright Malopa of MBC, armstrong Kamphoni of stock Brokers, Evans Matabwa of Auction Holdings, Charles Thupi of National Road Safety Council, PS Economic Planning and the list is endless
Show Zain that you are capable and avoid falling into temptations especially from ladies otherwise muyaluka
Inu a finye who told u stockbrokers Malawi is headed by Armstrong? That guy was long fired. There is a very young man named mark mikwamba who is the ceo now.
Inu a Chitsulo, Armstrong quit Stockbrokers and help set up African Alliance (a top stockbroking firm with a presence in 14 African countries) ndiponso Mark is quit Stockbrokers kale kale hes with Old Mutual.
Congratulations Saulos!!! You deserve it. Ma Pioneers a Democracy pa Malawi ndinu ngakhale simumachita kuyimbira ng’oma. I salute you my brother. Do your BEST!!!
yese, yes yes. ameneyo ndiamene timati anyamata a multiparty meaning the people who brought multiparty in Malawi.
CONGRANTS SAULOS CHILIMA.
It is pleasing to see multiparty boys doing fine like this. Keep it up doing a good job Brother.
zoooooooooooooooona abambo.all the best
Congrats Saulos, you derserve it you have saved Malawi well as a young man i salute you. Its the pride of Malawians to have young men ascend higher and trusted with high achievechement.
aluta continua
Congrats Muleme wanzeru, u know what am talking about! All Mtendere boys are soooo proud of you! Osasiya kupita ku misa ya ya 6 am.
I reserve my cngratulations until I see service delivery improving. It’s good for Saulos and his family as he will get a fat salary, but as a client all I want is a goood service. Will Saulos deliver that? I live abroad and making calls to Malawi is the most frustrating thing. Kuti phone igwire you have to try several times. And you get dropped calls all the time. The cost is also just too exhorbitant. And why do they charge locals in US Dollars? These are the problems that Saulos should face head one. When he makes a difference I’ll join the rest of you in congratulating Mr. Chilima. For now, I just wish him all the best.
Kodi inu a Mocha kunja kwake ndikuti? zibwerani basi! simudziwa kuti zimakhala bwanji munthu akamaimba phone kuchokera kunja?? there’re alot of carriers involved. If you fail to reach Malawi, the first blame should go to yr your network, how are they routing their traffic to Malawi? which carriers are involved.Then blame the network in Malawi.
Ndikukhulupirira kuti ndakuphandizani kunja kuno kuli ma Voip bambo
A Mocha, kodi kunjako mukutani? zibwerani basi. Do yu know who/what is involved for voice calls to reach Malawi? Do yu know that there are voice carriers out there?
Why do yu want to blame networks in Malawi on incoming calls? Pliz note that it is the responsibilty of that network to find the best carrier to transport that call to Malawi. Likewise operators in MALAWI have the responsibility to find best route for there outgoing traffic. Kunjako kuli ma Voip ambiri ena amayenda mma briefcase. Fisi anakana nsatsi. nenani zina
Congrats, Young man!! U R now “a big man”.
You can deliver… In the corporate world, marketing is tougher than general management or directing. If you made it in the former, definitely you will make it in the latter.
Koma Mwakula tsono, ma bonus muzidya ndi okazi anu ndi wana asati kugulira othothoka sidze ma galimoto a ‘dubai’(Share the bonus with yr wife and ch’den and not buying those loose scavenging lasses rehabilitated saloons from UAE/japan)
Feza kuno Saulosi ukhale ngati ndiku….
Kutindikusilike.
Africana woyeee!
Much as I congratulate Saulos for his promotion, the appointment has been made because of political influence. Saulos himself, behind the back of the outgoing MD Fayaz King, proposed to the government and Airtel top brass (the team which came to Malawi a couple of weeks ago and the news was here on Nyasatimes) to have him (king) removed and replaced by a Malawian in order to for the Airtel deal to pass without hitches. This happened at a meeting which King did not attend. It is indeed good to have a Malawian in such post but at the same time the risk and cost of having a political appointee has to be taken into consideration. The problem with King was that he trusted Saulos so much so that if there was an issue between Zain and government, he used to send Saulos to talk to the government not knowing Saulos was “clever” playing his cards well and to his advantage. A word to Saulos; politics is a nasty game, if you push others, you will also be pushed one day. He (Saulos) survived being given the boot towards the end of last year, because he was suspected to have misappropriated some funds. He went on leave for the dust to settle.
Anyway I wish him all the success. Hope we will experience less dropped calls, good network coverage. He is a sales guy. King was marketing chap. Is this the reason why they had a successful, massive marketing campaign and a huge subscriber base with disproportionate and poor service? Is the appointment not a repetition of the same problem where we will see more banners, with degraded service? Wasn’t this the right time for Airtel to have a Techie with niche management skills? We are yet to see.
To all my fellow Malawians,please try to acknowledge without any negativity attached.Let’s just celebrate that one of our sons is the top boss.
BRAVO SAUL!!!!