Vodacom, which is majority owned by British mobile phone giant Vodafone, has tapped former Uganda Breweries managing director Nyimpini Mabunda as chief officer: Consumer Business Unit, effective 1 September 2016. By Gugu Lourie
Mabunda is replacing Godrey Motsa, who left the mobile phone operator in December.
The announcement was disclosed in an e-mail sent on Tuesday to Vodacom employees by group CEO Shameel Joosub.
Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator MTN announced on Monday that it has appointed Motsa as VP South & East Africa. His appointment is effective 1 July 2016.
Mabunda was managing director of Uganda Breweries since 2013.
Mabunda’s contract with Uganda Breweries expires next month. The beer maker announced on June 16 that it has appointed Mark Ocitti, the managing director for East African Breweries International as its new managing director effective August, to replace Mabunda.
He started his career at Proctor & Gamble where he was employed as a Graduate Management Trainee with sales and customer marketing and later held the position of channel manager.
He then joined Diageo in 2000 as the marketing manager White Spirits at Guinness UDV.
From 2009 to 2012, Mabunda worked as the regional manager for Diageo based in London, managing the Audit Premium Non-Alcoholic brands across Africa. In 2013, he returned to Brand House in South Africa as head of portfolio, Whiskey and Reserve and helped launched the South African Reserve business.
He holds an MBA, Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management, and Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Cape Town.
“Please join me in congratulating Nyimpini on his new appointment and wishing him all the best for the future,” said Joosub in an email to Vodacom staff.
Meanwhile, MTN has also appointed Vodafone’s CEO of the European cluster Rob Shuter as its group CEO. Shuter is also a former CEO of Vodafone Netherlands and ex-Vodacom chief financial officer.
