The Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE) has appointed former Airtel Uganda Managing Director Anwar Soussa as the Managing Director (MD) of Safaricom in Ethiopia.

Soussa who left Airtel Uganda in May 2016 is currently the Managing Director of Vodacom DRC and the Chairperson of Vodacash (M-PESA) a position he has held since 2017.

He has cemented Vodacom DRC as the largest Vodacom operation outside of South Africa by driving major strides in operational performance, crossing the $500M USD in service revenue mark for the first time in 2020.

Anwar will lead the Ethiopian Operating Company on behalf of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia Consortium. He will be responsible for execution of the consortium’s goal to bring about transformational economic and social impact in Ethiopia and positively enhance the lives of its over 112 million people.

He will formulate strategies and plans to ensure delivery of quality and affordable mobile and internet connectivity enabling millions more Ethiopians to access quality telecom services. Prior to joining Vodacom, Anwar served as the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel in Uganda and Chad. He has also worked in various senior leadership capacities at MTN and Digicel, among other telcos.

Anwar is a Greek national who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American College of Greece (Deree) and a master’s degree in Marketing from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.