INDIA-BASED Bharti Airtel, the parent company of Airtel Rwanda, has restructured the management of its Africa operation and appointed top executives to drive the company’s growth agenda on the continent.

Under the new management structure all countries within which Airtel is operating, have been clustered into four strategic business units under the managing director and chief executive officer Africa, effective April 1.

In the new structure, Christophe Soulet has been appointed executive operations director of the second strategic business unit comprising Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Ghana.  Soulet has previously worked with Millicom as chief operating and executive officer Tigo Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Chad. He also worked as Togo’s chief regional officer for Africa.

According to a statement issued by the company, VG Somasekhar has been appointed executive operations director of the Zambia, Congo B, Malawi, Burkina, Niger, Chad, Madagascar and Seychelles cluster. Somasekhar has been the managing director Airtel Uganda since December 2010 and is credited for growing the business, making the Ugandan operation one of Airtel’s most profitable businesses in Africa.

Both Soma and Christophe will be based in Nairobi for their new assignments.

"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,” said Christian de Faria chief executive officer Airtel Africa.

De Faria also stated that both Segun Ogunsanya and Louis Lubala currently chief executive officers for Airtel Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo, will continue to lead the countries which form the other two business units.

Present in 17 African countries, Airtel is the largest telecoms service provider across the continent in terms of geographical reach with about 68.3 million customers at the end of 2013.

This makes Airtel the fourth largest mobile services provider in terms of customer base in the world.