MultiChoice East Africa Regional Director and acting for West Africa Africa Stephen Isaboke will no longer be running the firm’s east Africa operations with effect from June 1, 2018. He will be based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in a new capacity as Africa’s Group Executive Head of Regulatory.
Stephen joined MultiChoice in January 2008 as General Manager in Kenya before being promoted to the Regional Director (RD) role for the Eastern region in November 2011. During his tenure as RD, the Eastern Region businesses grew to become a significant contributor to the MultiChoice Africa Group.
Stephen has been replaced by Maharage Chande, currently the MultiChoice Tanzania Managing Director.
Chande will step into Stephen’s regional role of Regional Director for East and in an acting capacity for West Region. At the same time, Maharage will continue to look after Tanzania.
Before joining MultiChoice Tanzania in 2016, Maharage who has extensively worked in Banking and Telecommunication industries, worked at Vodacom Tanzania Limited as Managing Executive of IT and Data from 2004 to 2010, National Bank of Commerce (NBC) as Chief Operating Officer from 2010 to 2014 then moved to the President’s Office as the Director of Corporate Services in the President’s Delivery Bureau from 2014 to 2016.
Maharage holds a Bachelor degree in Electronics and Communication from University of Dar es salaam (UDSM) and Masters in Business Leadership from University of South Africa (UNISA).
The firm says the appointment of the two is in tandem with the growth of the video entertainment business and cements MultiChoice Africa’s market leadership position in providing great entertainment from a business born and bred in Africa and committed to investing in the future of our people.
In a statement, MultiChoice Africa Chief Executive Officer, Brand de Villiers, “Our strategy is to continuously provide customers with more of their favorite content and thus providing unmatched value. The new appointments will play a major role in delivering the experience our customers deserve – and we are determined to put this at the center of our corporate culture and values.”
Isaboke was part of the firm’s development in Kenya and the East Africa region especially on local content development at a time of disruption with shifts in consumer habits driven by convergence of TV and Mobile technologies. During this period, the firm continued to lose popularity due to implosion of consumption of content through various platforms including Over-the-Top (OTT) services via the internet. The appointment of a new regional head might help the firm regain its footing in a market it earlier dominated.
