Airtel CEO to hand over to successor this week

By Standard Reporter

Airtel Kenya will this week bid bye to its chief executive whose tenure saw the introduction of a number of services and in his place, welcome another experienced hand in the industry.

Mr Shivan Bhargava who has led the turn-around of the Kenya operation into a profitable business over the last three years and built a strong foundation for sustainable growth into the future with innovative services such as Airtel Money is set to officially give way to Adil El Youssefi in the next two days.

Airtel Kenya has gone from strength to strength while maintaining and evolving its strong customer values and competitive services since 2010.

“We have shown our ambition and drive by getting 17 percent share of the highly competitive and lucrative telecommunications market in Kenya, turning the company into profitability,” said Shivan.

He attributed the growth to highly trained and committed staff that offers superior customer service and the company’s innovative and competitive products.

Mr Bhargava said Airtel has been training its staff and giving its customers the perfect experience by offering them quality products and services.

Under Shivan, the company can boast of having launched the 3.75G platform in February 2012, which introduced the fastest mobile internet in Kenya and offered customers the latest global High Speed Packet Access plus technology- same as that being rolled out in Europe and the USA.

It is the fastest 3G available and has been enormously beneficial for a variety of internet and data users including large Corporates, small or medium businesses and the youth.

Under Shivan, the company has seen impressive growth of its mobile money platform-Airtel Money, which was launched in August 2011.

“The Airtel money mobile commerce platform offers a simple, easy to use customer friendly access menu that makes it faster and convenient for customers and dealers to carry out transactions. The platform provides consumers with a robust offering of products that cuts across mobile banking, service payments, airtime top up and money transfer services,” said Shivan.

Airtel Money currently has more than 10,000 agents countrywide and the number is expected to grow to 15,000 by the end of the year.

The vast dealer network has now been complimented by corporate agents to enhance availability and reliability of the services countrywide. These include Posta, Uchumi Supermarkets, Pep Intermedius (Nakumatt), Tuskys, Muramati Sacco, Housing Finance, Cooperative Bank and Faulu Bank.

Shivan’s tenure was also marked by the launch of another revolutionary product-the Airtel Mobile Units, which were rolled out in September 2012.

The units offer tailor-made products and services targeting acquisition and retention of customers. The mobile communication vehicles units have been crisscrossing the vast urban and rural terrains to help the company’s customers access better services.

Simply put, these units are basically offering “agents on wheels” services where customers and prospective customers are able to carry out Airtel services as if they would be at an Airtel or Airtel agent shop, including money deposits and withdrawal of money.

The mobile units are spread out across all regions in the country going as far and wide as Hola in Tana River to the more urbanised areas such as Nairobi city.