Liquid Telecom has appointed ex-Microsoft Senior Executive Dennis Keko Kahindi as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Liquid Telecom Uganda, effective 1 March 2019.
Kahindi will be responsible for accelerating Liquid Telecom’s growth and market penetration in this important region.
He brings more than 15 years’ experience to this new role, having previously worked in senior executive roles at Oracle and Microsoft in Rwanda and Uganda.
Liquid Telecom Uganda growth
“Dennis is the ideal person to lead Liquid Telecom Uganda on its next phase of growth,” said Adil El Youssefi CEO, East Africa Region, Liquid Telecom.
“His talent, vision and insight will help cement recent customer successes, create new customer relationships, and build on the company’s reputation for communications innovation. Attracting a business leader of this calibre to lead Liquid Telecom Uganda is a testament to the company’s reputation in this important market.”
Kahindi possesses proven senior management and operational leadership skills, gained across diverse communications and other organisations.
Strategy development, sales and marketing leadership
Prior to this appointment, he was the Business Lead for Oracle in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. He was also previously the Country Manager for Microsoft in Uganda and Rwanda.
Kahindi’ areas of expertise include strategy development, sales and marketing leadership, profitability and cost analysis, contract negotiations and strategic alliances.
His qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the Makerere University, an MBA from the United States International University in Nairobi and a qualification in Business School and Business Strategy and Financial Acumen from the INSEAD Business School of the World.
“I look forward to working closely with customers in Uganda to help them achieve their digital transformation ambitions,” said Dennis. “Liquid Telecom has an enviable track record of helping customers innovate, embrace change and drive agility. Together with our partners, we will help them build on their success while ensuring they continue to receive an exceptional and rewarding service experience.”
Liquid Telecom in aggressive expansion
Kahindi’s appointment comes months after Susan M’kandawire Mulikita was named the new CEO of Liquid Telecom Zambia and Mohamed Abdel Bassit was appointed the Regional CEO for the Middle East and West Africa (MEWA).
Mulikita is expected to accelerate growth and market penetration across the South-central African country with Bassit being responsible for driving Liquid Telecom’s expansion across the MEWA region.
Africa abandoning satellite internet
Liquid’s investment comes as Africa is abandoning satellite internet.
Liquid Telecom has built a fibre network of over 50,000km across Africa to connect nations and businesses directly.
But it is the addition of more than 1,600 peering partnerships that is also transforming traffic speeds across the continent.
With the development of internet exchange points in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa, it is now possible to send and receive data over a direct link between all these nations without going via Europe.
Africa is more connected for better trade, business
Both public and private organisations, among them Liquid Telecom, continue to invest millions of dollars in laying fibre.
“The continent is finally becoming more connected, bringing with it improved internal communications, trade and business that will change the future,” says Liquid Telecom’s Group Chief Technical and Innovation Officer, Ben Roberts.
Liquid Telecom’s terrestrial fibre link from ‘Cape to Cairo’ was recently completed representing the first direct land-based terrestrial fibre link.
With this connection, it is only getting more demanding as the internet becomes more and more of a fundamental requirement on the continent.
The company is positioning itself ahead of the competition to ensure that this growing demand is met with convenience and reliability.
Already, Liquid is partnering with MTN to provide 4G roaming service while it earlier partnered with Microsoft through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) programme to deliver scalable and secure cloud services across Africa.
