Airtel Zambia has demoted and replaced its managing director Fayaz King with Suresh Reddy who has been elevated from the position of chief financial officer.

The company, which is the largest mobile operator in Zambia, has not given any reason for replacing King, a Zimbabwean national who was at the helm of Airtel Zambia from 2010 when the company took over Zain Zambia.

King has been assigned to be in charge of special projects within Zambia, but its not yet clear whether he will stay in the new position.

King has been instrumental in growing the company for the past four years. Over the past year, he negotiated and entered into an agreement with the Zambian government through the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) to construct sharable towers around the country.

Jerome Kawesha, Airtel head of corporate communication and government relations said, “I have just heard about the dismissal but I have no details at present”.

Airtel presently enjoys a larger share of the telecom market in Zambia with over 4 million subscribers, followed by MTN which has more than 3.5 million subscribers while Zamtel is at the bottom with just over one million subscribers.