|
IN French aimable means love. When a Rwandan couple named their son Aimable little did they know that the only love their offspring would be smitten with is the love of telecommunications.
Telecel’s new managing director Aimable Mpore has known no other career other than telecommunications since he was part of the team that ushered in the first mobile operator on the continent in 1989.
Mpore was thrust into the top seat following the resignation of Rex Chibesa last year.
Three months into the job, the DRC-born Canadian national believes he has what it takes to make Telecel the network of choice.
“We are doing what it takes to justify what the customer can say about the service,” Mpore told Standardbusiness in his plush office at the company’s headquarters in Graniteside.
“We are targeting to reach 95% population coverage which is 60-65% geographic coverage.”
He says there is a ready market to build the subscriber base and the expansion thrust will be premised on providing quality service to subscribers.
From 250 000 in the past 10 years, Telecel’s subscriber base has grown to 650 000 making the operator the second largest after Econet.
“The market is there, the potential is there,” he said.
Mpore is a new breed of executives at Telecel not the familiar “please send questions in writing” type who never bothers to reply when confronted with tough questions from journalists.
Since inception, Telecel executives have always adopted a laid back approach to the media at a time rivals have used the platform to announce new products.
Not even the prospects of MTN coming into the local market scare Mpore.
“Whatever we are doing, we are putting our services to international standards to be able to compete with anyone,” he said.
The South African operator is keen on Zimbabwe investments and has made inquiries at state owned mobile operator, NetOne.
The telecommunications business, like any other sector has suffered from brain drain as professionals look for greener pastures elsewhere but Mpore says the situation can be addressed if incentives are put in place.
Mpore cut his teeth in telecommunications at Telecel when he was part of the executives who launched the network in the then Zaire in 1989 first as commercial director before assuming the reins as managing director.
Although the venture was in a quasi-monopolistic nature, it was the first mobile operation on the continent, Mpore said.
From Central Africa, Mpore moved to Europe as group business development executive for Telecel International in Geneva Switzerland.
His job entailed overseeing the activities of the then 12 operations of Telecel International and reporting to the group CEO.
“I was also directly responsible for mergers and acquisitions (that is how I ended up in Uganda as I had been involved in the acquisition process),” Mpore said.
“In Uganda I launched the network from scratch and there were already two strong competitors (MTN and Celtel).
“We managed to take the number two position,” he told Standardbusiness.
The desire to grow saw Mpore arriving at MTN as head of its operations in Ivory Coast in 2006.
Then MTN CI was the second largest by subscriber base and when Mpore was forced out of the country last year, the operator was the largest operator.
But he told Standardbusiness it was now water under the bridge and his mandate at the moment is to make Telecel a network of choice.
“I came here to contribute to the growth of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Telecel is testing its third generation network after being allocated the frequencies two weeks ago.
The Telecel boss says the roll out will commence towards June.
BY NDAMU SANDU
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form