It has been a long time coming but it has finally come to pass. Microsoft has appointed Kunle Awosika as the new Microsoft Kenya Country Manager. He takes over from Louis Otieno, who is credited with the successful launch of Microsoft in East Africa, a leadership position he has held for the past 15 years. Louis has since moved to Microsoft 4Afrika. Kunle will be charged with the task of taking care of the Microsoft business in Kenya and more so to shift Microsoft in line with its global plan to become more of a devices and services company. His primary role will be to grow a high performance team and build organisational capability and capacity, working closely with both Microsoft employees and its partners to continue growing the business as a top subsidiary in Africa.
Kunle was previously working in Microsoft Nigeria. While there, he was Director for the Enterprise & Public Sector Business in Anglophone West Africa where he worked tirelessly to contribute to the business’ expansion of the region since 2009, influenced and worked with multiple government divisions responsible for the implementation of the Government Wide Messaging & Collaboration platform (GWMC), an important Nigerian initiative aimed at unifying IT networks across the country.
Even while working in Nigeria, Kunle is not new to Kenya. He worked previously in the local Microsoft office where he headed up the sales function of Microsoft’s solutions to telecoms and other business verticals in the larger West, East and Central Africa (WECA) region.
“We are delighted to have Kunle on board in this critically important role. Kenya is, without a doubt, one of Africa’s most dynamic and promising technology hubs, and Microsoft remains deeply committed to the long term growth opportunity here. Kunle has the track record and credentials to help grow this dynamic and exciting market.” commented Hennie Loubser, regional General Manager of Microsoft West East Central Africa & the Indian Ocean Islands.
Awosika has been given this role after a restructure at Microsoft in Africa which saw Microsoft’s ESA region split further into 3 sales regions namely:
- Microsoft Kenya
- Microsoft Angola which covers Angola and Mozambique
- and the new Microsoft ESA (East and Southern Africa) territory which covers 12 countries namely Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
