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Google’s ‘Mr Africa’? Ten things to know about Nitin Gajria

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Posted on May 3, 2022 09:44

Appointed chief of the multinational in Africa just before the Covid-19 pandemic, 43-year-old Gajria has not been able to travel the continent the way he would have liked. In March, he made one of his first official trips to Lomé to mark, with the Togolese government, the landing of the Equiano submarine cable.

This is part 8 of an 11-part series.

It was expected in Lagos but it arrived in Lomé. Equiano, Google’s undersea fibre-optic cable that will connect Lisbon to Cape Town, was inaugurated in Togo on 18 March. “The landing of Equiano is a concrete expression of Google’s commitment to supporting Africa’s digital transformation,” said Nitin Gajria, Google’s managing director for sub-Saharan Africa.

1. Lomé

Appointed to his position in 2019, from Johannesburg Gajria leads a trio in charge of the Mountain View firm’s strategy in Africa: Nigerian Juliet Ehimuan, Kenyan Agnes Gathaiya and South African Alistair Mokoena. Lomé is one of his first official trips outside of South Africa, as he says the pandemic has prevented him from “travelling as much as I would have liked”. He attributes this surprise landing to the alignment of interests between Google and Togo while confirming that the Equiano

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