Emeka Oparah was recently promoted to the position of the Vice President of Communications and CSR in Airtel Africa, having functioned in various capacities in Airtel Nigeria for over nineteen years.
He made the announcement on his LinkedIn handle, reflecting on his over 19 years of service in the Nigerian subsidiary of the African telco giant.
His posts read: “From Nigeria to Africa…!!! Today, after 19 and a half years in Airtel Nigeria, I formally assumed a new position in Dubai, UAE, as the Vice President Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel Africa Plc, with responsibility for 14 countries.”
“To all who supported me along the way as I journeyed in my career, I will forever be in debt of gratitude. Â All the glory goes to The Great Architect Of The Universe!,” he added.
Meanwhile, here is a background on how Emeka Oparah rose through the ladder.
- Emeka Oparah schooled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he graduated from the Department of Mass Communications with a 2nd class upper in 1990. After his first degree, he worked at Patine Communications between 1991-1992, after which he left to work at Candid Communications.
- After working for a while in Candid communication, in the same year, he took a new job at Richland Communications, where he worked between 1992 and 1994. He then moved to Cadbury Nigeria in 1994 where he worked for nine years up until 2002.
- While working at Cadbury Nigeria, he attended The Management School, London, where he got a postgraduate diploma in International Public Relations. He left Cadbury Nigeria in 2002 and resumed work at Airtel in the same year.
- He resumed at Airtel (then called Econet wireless) as the Corporate Affairs Manager in 2002, which he held for two years before taking up the position of Public Relations Manager for two years.
- In 2007 he worked as head of division, PR, Events and sponsorships for 11 months from February of the same year till December, and by December 2007 he worked as Head of Corporate Communications till May 2011 at the then Zain Nigeria.
- By June 2011 he moved to the position of Vice President, Corporate Communications & CSR at Airtel Nigeria, a position he occupied for over six years. Between 2018 and February 2022, he was a director at Airtel Nigeria before his new appointment as Vice President of Communications for Airtel Africa.
The story of Emeka Oparah shows a typical success story, moving through the ranks, which has now paid off after 19 years of working in the telco’s Nigerian subsidiary. He is now set to operate from Dubai, UAE, where he will oversee the operations of 14 countries.
My congratulations to Emeka Oparah on his new post within the Airtel family.
I hope one can still complain to him about services on the Airtel network in Nigeria.
I have complained to Airtel through emails that I don’t want to be receiving End of Call Notifications (EOCN) after I make a call or send an SMS text. Airtel replies me that it has de-activated my number but nothing is done. I write again to say that the EOCN is still coming and again I receive a reply that says EOCN has been deactivated.
When this does not happen, I called at an Airtel Outlet to make the request. The good lady that attended to me asked to make a call with my phone and after the call, the EOCN was received again. She then asked me to give them 24 hours and following her mail to some people at the head office, she told me the matter will be resolved within 24 hours. And that should have been by 25 January 2022.
Following the non resolution of my matter, I mailed Airtel again on 29 January 2022 drawing their attention to my 2 earlier mails, their replies and the SMS text after my visit to one of their outlets and as usual I got a reply that my problem has been resolved.
It is now 9 days after this reply, I am still receiving EOCN after I make a call.
If Airtel is telling me to port, perhaps I should consider it. After all, my number begins with 0803.