Microsoft appoints Kenya country manager

Kunle Awosika

Awosika will run the Kenyan office with the primary focus of growing a high performing team and building organisational capability and capacity, working closely with both Microsoft employees and its partners to continue growing the business.

He joins Kenya from Microsoft Nigeria where he was director for the Enterprise and Public Sector Business in Anglophone West Africa, contributing to the business expansion of the region since 2009. While working in Nigeria, Awosika influenced and worked with multiple government divisions responsible for the implementation of the Government Wide Messaging and Collaboration platform (GWMC). GWMC is an important Nigerian initiative aimed at unifying IT networks across the country. He was also engaged in many other strategic business and leadership forums whilst in Nigeria.

Awosika is no stranger 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.

Hennie Loubser, regional general manager of Microsoft West, East, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands comments, "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."

Strengthening market share in Africa

Awosika's role is in line with the recent restructuring of the Microsoft East and Southern Africa (ESA) region. The business has been split into three autonomous sales regions - Microsoft Kenya, Microsoft Angola (covering Angola and Mozambique) and the new Microsoft East and Southern Africa territory which covers Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The move will further enable the business to streamline its resources and strengthen its market share in Africa.

Microsoft opened up its operations in Kenya in 1996 before expanding further into the East and Southern African region. Louis Otieno, Awosika's predecessor, is credited with the successful launch of Microsoft in East Africa having started in the East African office 15 years ago. He grew the business with a dedicated team to cover 16 countries in East and Southern Africa. Otieno has since moved to manage Africa Initiatives as the Director Microsoft 4Afrika Initiatives.