3 minute read
Interview
Operator Africell has been making headlines for some while as a major player in Sierra Leone and The Gambia and a dynamic new presence in Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo. Recently the company appointed a new group chief commercial officer. We talked to Godfrey Efeurhobo about his, and Africell’s, plans.
AFRICELL, A FAST-GROWING mobile network operator with a pan-African footprint, has appointed a new group chief commercial officer to accelerate growth in Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and strengthen its market leadership in Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
Godfrey Efeurhobo joins Africell from Airtel Nigeria, an operator with over 50 million customers and almost US$2bn in annual revenue. As chief commercial officer of Airtel Nigeria, Efeurhobo led all aspects of commercial operations including marketing, sales and distribution, customer experience, brand and communications, regional operations, home broadband and retail.
In his new role, Efeurhobo is responsible for growing Africell’s customer base, driving sales, and differentiating Africell from its competitors.
He joins Africell only six months after the launch of its services in Angola and at a time when it is undertaking a major network expansion in DRC, with several new cities and provinces (including in the east of the country) coming online in the past year.
In this interview, Godfrey Efeurhobo discussed the challenges of his new market focus and Africell’s plans for its four key markets.
Communications Africa: Your background is working with a major operator in the continent’s biggest market. Why did you choose Africell as your next challenge? Godfrey Efeurhobo, group chief commercial officer, Africell: For a major operator in a highly competitive market like Nigeria, the opportunity for revenue and subscriber growth is not comparable to markets like Angola and DRC. Africell operates in environments where growth can be much bolder, and the company has ambitious plans to scale up across the board. This appeals to my personal instinct for having an impact. As chief commercial officer, my aim is to double the group’s overall subscriber numbers and revenues within a short period.
In our first six months [in Angola] we have presented a fresh and dynamic alternative
Communications Africa: What do you see as the challenges of working in Angola and DRC? And the opportunities? Godfrey Efeurhobo, Africell: The biggest challenge in both these markets is the enormous gap between high income and low-income communities. Both countries have affluent, educated and well-travelled elites who expect a high level of mobile service, defined by convenience, reliable connectivity (for both voice and data), and speed. Meanwhile, these countries are home to big populations with very limited spending power. This is challenging because our commercial strategy needs to be expansive enough to target both categories of customer. Happily, our networks are more than capable of impressing higher-end users familiar with the quality of mobile service you would get in the Gulf, Europe or North America. Moreover, our distribution network is over time spreading more widely and deeply into the less affluent communities which provide the lion’s share of our potential subscriber base.
Godfrey Efeurhobo: “The company has ambitious plans to scale up across the board.”
Communications Africa: You refer to strengthening market leadership in Sierra Leone and The Gambia. What sort of areas do you feel can be boosted in these markets and how? Godfrey Efeurhobo, Africell: Gambia and Sierra Leone are smaller than Angola and DRC, with higher mobile penetration rates. One of the ways to cement our market leadership in this context is to accelerate the transition of more users to a sustained behaviour of quality data consumption. Content is – and will continue to be – vital to this process. As in other parts of the world, people in Africa draw increasing value and enjoyment from consuming digital content – whether it is TV, videos, music, or social media. There are numerous strategies for growing data
