In the news this week, Bharti Airtel which recently acquired 15 African operations of Zain including Kenya for over US$ 10 Billion reiterated that it will seek to empower local operations by developing its local human capital as part of its business strategy. This news comes after various reports last week that had indicated that Bharti Airtel had intended to bring large numbers of senior management staff from its Asian operations that was sending jitters through the Zain Africa workforce.

The proposed approach to how Zain Africa local operations would be handled was communicated by Bharti Airtel’s CEO, Manoj Kohli, during the mobile company’s Africa leadership workshop held in Kampala between the Bharti’s executives and 15 country Managing Directors over this past weekend. Speaking about the workshop, Mr. Rene Meza, Managing Director, Zain Kenya said that the joint meeting provided an opportunity for the business leaders to share each market’s vision and strategy.

“This week, the senior management team from Zain Africa and Bharti came together to jointly set out the vision and strategy for Airtel Africa as ‘one team’. One thing that has clearly emerged from this meeting is that Airtel’s operations in each market, including Kenya, will be further empowered to be truly local businesses, and therefore our existing employees are critical to achieving this vision. “Airtel is a highly professional, innovative and successful business, and we are all set to benefit from the transfer of knowledge and skills into our business, and we welcome that” He added.

During the meeting, it was agreed that a small core team of 40 Bharti Airtel employees with specialized expertise, will be deployed across all 15 countries of Africa which will continue employing a total of 6,500 employees. 20 out of these 40 will be stationed in an all new, 100-employee Africa Headquarters which will be based in Nairobi. In addition to Airtel Africa Head office in Nairobi, all its strategic partners are planning to set up new offices or expand existing offices in Nairobi. Equally, in the next six months, 20 professionals from across its 15 African operations will be inducted by Bharti to its operations in India as part of its talent cross pollination program.