GPE Appoints Anwar Soussa To Lead Safaricom-Led Consortium Operations in Ethiopia
The Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE) on Monday appointed Mr. Anwar Soussa as the Managing Director (MD) of the Operating Company in Ethiopia, effective 1st July 2021.
His appointment comes a month after Ethiopia’s telecommunications regulator awarded an operating license to a consortium led by Kenya’s Safaricom and Japan’s Sumitomo.
With the license, Safaricom, a partner member of the Vodafone Group, and will establish a new operating company in Ethiopia which aims to start providing telecommunications services from 2022.
Mr. Anwar who is currently the Managing Director of Vodacom DRC and the Chairperson of Vodacash (M-PESA) a position he has held since 2017 will report to the Board of the Ethiopia entity and Safaricom CEO.
He has cemented Vodacom DRC as the largest Vodacom operation outside of South Africa by driving major strides in operational performance, crossing the $500M USD in service revenue mark for the first time in 2020.
Anwar will lead the Ethiopian Operating Company on behalf of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia Consortium. He will be responsible for the execution of the consortium’s goal to bring about transformational economic and social impact in Ethiopia and positively enhance the lives of its over 112 million people.
He will formulate strategies and plans to ensure the delivery of quality and affordable mobile and internet connectivity enabling millions of more Ethiopians to access quality telecom services.
Prior to joining Vodacom, Anwar served as the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel in Uganda and Chad. He has also worked in various senior leadership capacities at MTN and Digicel, among other telcos.
Anwar is a Greek national who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American College of Greece (Degree) and a master’s degree in Marketing from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
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