GUNTILA – THE VISIONARY LEADER WHO TOUCHED AND INSPIRED MANY LIVES

Introduction

WE ARE here as Agri – Coop Newspaper not only to celebrate an extraordinary career but also honor a life that has made profound difference in Agriculture precisely  the seed industry,  Marketing and Broadcasting landscape of this nation.  

We’re talking about a person who made sure and saw that tasks were done meticulously in the manner that yielded remarkable results thereby leaving a lasting impression. Andtrue to his thoughts, a legacy that will live to stand the taste of time is what he has left behind.

Background

Born Guntila Muleya in 1980. He was a Zambian businessman and DirectorGeneral of The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) of Zambia from May 6,2024, until his assassination in July of this same year.

Workedat SEEDCO

As Agri - Coop team, we had an up close and personal interaction with SEEDCO Zambia Commercial Director, Fred Kusaloka who was willing to share with us the journey of the late Mr. Guntila Muleya during his time at SEEDCO.

 SEEDCOBoard Chairman – Zambia and East Africa, Mr. Chance Kabaghe  says the late Guntila Muleya performed his duties well as a commercial director of SEEDCO, he contributed massively in making the seed varieties popular not only in Zambia but also across the borders.

He also introduced digital marketing for the company that SEEDCO was lagging behind, with him being the in charge of the marketing activities’ the company witnessed the increase in sales.

After the managing director retiredafter 10 years of working at chief executive level, they advertised for the jobboth locally and internationally, Mr. Muleya applied for the position and hewas considered the right person to be given the position as the managingdirector at SEEDCO.

He was a digital marketing personelMr. Muleya would mingle with the chiefs, the extension officers, suppliers ofinputs and the Zambia Seeds Association of Zambia.

The demise of Mr. Guntila is a verybig loss to the seed industry, the agricultural sector of Zambia and the mediaindustry; he worked very hard, even as he left SEEDCO to join InformationBroadcasting Authority (IBA) as the director general, Mr. Kabaghe said he wasso confident that he was going to succeed in his duties at IBA.

Mr. Kabaghe said he has a number ofvivid memories that always reminds him of Mr. Muleya, one of them is themoments where he would visit him at his office and his home residence addingthat he was more than a friend to him. He elevated himself and he could confidewith him on a couple of issues.

He further added that that Mr. Muleyawas a technical person and good at analyzing the market with top notchpresentations during both the board meetings and the managing meetings, madehim to be more of an executive person during his presentations.

Mr. Kusalokaindicated that the late Guntila joined SEEDCO in 2018 as the Marketing Managerand contributed a lot within a short time. He was promoted as the Commercial Directorin 2020 in charge of Commercial departments that included Marketing andagronomy.

He said having serveddiligently in the role of Commercial Director, Mr. Guntila was elevated to theposition of General Manager and later became the Managing Director in the year2022 the designation he held until the time he left the organization in 2023.

He furtheradded that the late was a visionary leader who believed in discovering new ways on how to do business, by challenging the norms and  to find ways on how to improve the delivery of service to the farmers. With a creative mind and as a person who would “explore new frontiers” Guntila decided to sail on uncharted waters for agri - business when he pursued the northern part of Zambia.

“In his tenure we saw the growth of SEEDCO company, the increase in our turnover during his term as the CEO which was a good thing to open up the northern part of this country as he believed the next frontier in terms of agriculture will be in the northern region, resources were put under his guidance and we saw the developments of the business in the northern region,” Mr. Kusaloka said.

Contributions

He was a visionary leader who always wanted to see bigger things happen. And that being the case he was always challenging his team players to look ahead and also ensure that they looked at the bigger picture of things.

Achievements

He achieved aBachelor of Science Degree in Marketing from the Copperbelt University and later pursued a Master’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of Zambia with a focus on Management Strategy. 

Professionally, Guntila Muleya’s work has been groundbreaking. He was famously known for his prominent passion for technology and he had a history of automating processes to improve efficiency.

As the leader at SEEDCO, he led the company during the hard time when the country was faced with the deadly covid19 pandemic. This was the time when the gatherings with farmers were restricted, and as a leader for the company, he came up with ways to ensure that engagements with farmers were maintained..

“Due to thecovid19 restrictions, he challenged the company to come up with ways to meet the farmers, this led to the first virtue field day meeting which ran for the whole week at the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) allowing SEEDCO to be able to engage with about 3 to 7 million farmers from the statistics we obtained in the weekly program,” stated Mr Kusaloka.

And Namwawa Munsaka who at some point worked with the late Guntila at SEEDCO Zambia described him as a visionary leader who always believed in improving the lives of people that he came in contact with in all spheres of life.

“This man’s passion in the agriculture sector was highly driven by the vision of seeing digital innovations being implemented in this very sector that could thereafter improve the livelihood of many farmers in this country,” she noted.  

Erick Mwenda who also worked closely with Guntila at SEEDCO Zambia as well noted that he was a man of greater achievements regardless of the situation that was obtaining on the ground.

“I would be very honest with you in terms ofsales at SEEDCO Zambia there was a time when some sales were at a certain level but then he said that we wanted to push the sales to another level which was farbeyond what we thought could happen but definitely that really happened.

“So, basically it was like someone wanting to make good wherever they go by just using their leadership capabilities to work with the team on the ground to make sure that they achieve their goal,” explained Mr. Mwenda.

Personal Stories

“I have a couple of memories of him, one of them is his personality as a very soft-spoken person, very easy to have conservations with and easy to relate with as if he wasn’t the CEO because he was able to mingle with anyone. He would also engage with our traditional leaders easily and his office was open to anyone for business consultations, and we also travelled together around the country, said Mr. Kusaloka.

“I remember there was a trip to go to South Africa, so this was a time when he actually instructed me to do some presentation to provide some information on really what we’re going to do. We had put together some information about what we were going to present in South Africa and I think both of us when we looked at it we were convinced that it was really a good one. He actually did the presentation and he shared it with me.

“When we did the presentation in South Africa, Zambia was the best in terms of the presentation about data. The kind of information presented was so good that  all the different countries that represented SEEDCO group of companies  actually praised Zambia for that and said we need to copy Zambia’s model and so everyone else should do what Zambia has done,” Eric Mwenda disclosed.

His career evolved around various leadership designations in major organizations like National Breweries, Multichoice Zambia and SEEDCO Zambia.

Conclusion

As we reflect on Mr. Muleya, it’s clear that his legacy is not just in his Marketing and Broadcasting achievements but also the significant change he scored in the agriculture seed industry that in return touched the many hearts and minds.

Mr FredKusaloka described the late Guntila as a soft-spoken person, very easy to haveconservations with while Erick Mwenda knew him as simply approachable and easygoing whilst Namwawa Munsaka endorsed the late as a visionary leader whose goalwas to improve people’s lives that came in his way.

Andus at Agri- Coop Newspaper, we would like to express our deepest gratitude toMr. Guntila Muleya for his unwavering dedication, inspiring leadership and passionateworkmanship to the agriculture industry at large and the continuous support herendered to the publication in particular.

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