VENTURES AFRICA  – India’s mobile phone operator, Bharti Airtel, on Thursday said it had appointed Christian de Faria to head its African businesses, starting from the beginning of next year.

De Faria, who was previously an executive at MTN, will initially head businesses that are located in the English speaking parts of Africa.

He will begin with an intensive acclimatisation programme that will cover the head office duties of Airtel Africa, French-speaking Africa and Nigeria on September 16 this year.

He will later start the all-inclusive duty of being the CEO of Airtel Africa.

De Faria takes over from current CEO Manoj Kohli. Kohli has been heading Airtel businesses in Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

He will be moving to India from January next year.

Kohli headed the firm’s venture into the African continent effectively during the past 36 months he has been there.

During the past seven years, De Faria occupied senior spots in MTN including the position of Executive Vice President for West and Central Africa.

He was also MTN’s commercial officer for 24 months until January this year.

Bharti Airtel has head offices in New Delhi, India. It has operations in 20 countries throughout South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands.

Airtel has GSM network in all countries in which it has operations. It is the fourth biggest mobile phone company in the world. It has over 275 million subscribers across 20 countries.