Showmax has appointed Kenyan tech and product executive Emma Gichonge as its first-ever General Manager to over its operations in East Africa.
The appointment comes after Showmax moved into a new streaming platform that saw the streamer revamp its offering.
Showmax last year surpassed Netflix as the leading streaming platform in Africa with customers across 44 African markets.
Showmax Chief Operating Officer Joe Heshu the new changes have been driven by a strong partnership between the MultiChoice Group and Comcast NBC Universal.
“With our ambition to be Africa’s No one streamer, we’re very happy to welcome Emma, whose wealth of experience will serve our customers in the key East African market,” said Heshu.
Gichonge’s reputation for building high-performance teams was honed working across multiple industries and countries.
This includes time at start-up tech company Yutap, where she led the implementation of mobile money solutions across Africa and Asia.
She also led the migration of the legacy MPESA mobile money platform at Safaricom, pioneering an Enterprise Project Management Office within the company.
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Mostly recently, she was Managing Director at MultiChoice Malawi, responsible for several commercial initiatives in the country.
“Showmax is a bold business, and is in an exciting stage in its story – moving onto the globally scaled Peacock platform, increasing its loved local content slate and introducing affordable new plans. With my passion for innovation, and for East Africa, I’m looking forward to building the business with the Kenyan Showmax team,” said Gichonge on her new role.
She added that already plans are underway to re-integrate in-app M-PESA payments with Showmax’s new technology.
“Currently customers can pay using M-PESA USSD but full M-PESA options will launch soon,” added the new General Manager.
She holds a Masters degree (IT Management) and a Bachelor of Science degree (Information Technology).
