Airtel Africa has appointed Louis Lubala and Antoine Pamboro as the new Managing Directors of its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Gabon respectively.

The new development sees the two vastly experienced Airtel top executives, take leadership roles in two African nations with diverse potential in the telecommunications sector. Gabon has one of the highest teledensity statistics at over a 100 percent whilst DRC, the second largest country in Africa by area, has an approximated 25 percent penetration.

Speaking on the appointments, Tiemoko Coulibaly, CEO (Francophone Africa), Bharti Airtel, said, “These appointments are a clear indication of our commitment to appreciate and tap into the deep reservoir of management skills of the blue chip executive pool in Africa. Luballa and Pambaro have the requisite experience and leadership skills to successfully steer our top francophone operations.” He added: “Both executives will bring different perspectives to two of Africa’s most dynamic telecommunications markets.”

Louis and Antoine will add significant value to Airtel’s customers in each country,  Luballa will lead an aggressive agenda in DRC to ramp up the organization’s network capabilities and grow availability across the vast country while Pambaro will build a strong data proposition for Airtel’s customers in Gabon.

Pambaro, holds a Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Civil Engineering from the Superior National School of Telecommunications, France and a Bachelor’s degree in Maths & Physics from the University of Reims, France. A career Engineer, he headed operations in Airtel DRC and brings over 28   years of deep telecommunications experience in both the Public and Private Sectors. He joined the company in 2000 from MTN having had a very successful career spanning several senior leadership roles.

Before taking up the DRC Managing Director role, Antoine had been working as Managing Director for Celtel Congo Brazzaville. Pambaro also worked for Camtel Mobile in Cameroon as Managing Director.