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Friday, March 11, 2016

Vodafone swings the axe at Ghana Telecom
30/03/2009 - by TelecomTV One

The mobile market in parts of Africa is experiencing an unprecedented boom. From Egypt to South Africa and Nigeria to Kenya, growth is remarkable - despite the global economic downturn. However, some telcos are still overstaffed, reports Martyn Warwick.

Overmanning is one of the last remaining legacies of the old, discredited, bureaucratic and inefficient state-owned model of telecoms provision that pertained in parts of Africa well into the mobile era.

Last summer, Vodafone spent US$900 million to acquire a 70 per cent stake in the west African state-controlled fixed line and mobile operator Ghana Telecom. The purchase caused a furore within the country. The government quickly approved the take-over but the political opposition were highly critical and claimed the deal had been rushed though with insufficient parliamentary oversight whilst the shares themselves were undervalued.

Now more than 20 per cent of the workforce at the carrier is to be cut with 850 out of 4,000 people being made redundant in what is, initially at least, a voluntary programme, in an effort to slim down the bloated staffing numbers to a level commensurate with a modern telco.......

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