Johannesburg, South Africa - KFC, a fast food restaurant chain, announced the appointment of its very first black female general manager for Africa, Akhona Qengqe, who will step into this role on 1 April 2023.
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Ms. Qengqe’s experience, spans across multiple industries including petroleum, property, marketing, operations and convenience retail.
She has also served as the Chairperson of the Board of the Franchise Association of South Africa.
Ms. Qengqe is no stranger to KFC in Africa having started with the business in 2015 as Development Director, after which she was promoted to lead the brand’s Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (EI&B) agenda, before being promoted to Chief People Officer (CPO) for KFC Africa in 2020 and more recently, appointed to Chief Development Officer.
She has been a spearhead for the KFC Add Hope programme and an advocate for creating access to nutritious meals, for those less fortunate - assisting the team in mobilising and driving this critical pillar of purpose for the business.
As a fierce advocate for gender parity and female empowerment, Ms. Qengqe conceptualised and launched KFC Africa’s Women on the Move programme, which was created in 2021 as a transformative 12-month programme to equip women with tools and resources that will help them leverage their innate leadership qualities and fuel results within the KFC business locally.
Further to this, and critical to her role as a true leader and advocate - she created and launched KFC’s global Community of Belonging (COB), SHINE - a safe and brave space for people to connect, belong and lead – building leadership experience in creating an environment of inclusion and belonging, with a restaurant-first mentality. ■
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