Travelstart, one of Africa’s largest online travel booking websites has announced the appointment of Philip Åkesson as Country Manager for Nigeria, effective 1 June 2016.

Philip will be based at Travelstart Nigeria’s office in Ikeja, Lagos taking over from Andre Van Straaten who has held the dual positions of International Markets Project Manager and Country Manager.

Under Philip’s leadership Andre will continue to manage strategic relationships with suppliers in West Africa. Philip will be responsible for overseeing commercial and operational strategies for Travelstart Nigeria and spearheading initiatives to grow the brand across the region. A Stockholm School of Economics alumni, Philip was previously a founding member of Konga.com which in only a few years rapidly grew to become one of Africa’s largest online marketplaces.

At Konga, Philip took on various roles ranging from operations, strategy, investor communications, business intelligence and strategic partnerships which equipped him with a goldmine of commercial and online expertise in the region. Mr Åkesson commented, “I am excited to start a new challenge within the Travelstart group and look forward to working with the team to expand its presence across verticals in the region, leveraging my experience in the local ecommerce space.”