The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of
Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, has assuaged the fears surrounding the reported outsourcing
of telecom towers to specialized entities, saying it would not lead to job cuts,
reports DigitalSENSE Business
News.
In a chat with DigitalSENSE
Business News on Monday in his office, Mr. Ogunsanya who assumed office in
Airtel Nigeria January 2013, insisted that outsourcing a unit like tower
management would lead to job cut, it would lead to a shift to core-competencies
of telecom engineers, thereby creating more jobs and encourages capacity
building in specialized area, which brings about excellence.
“… So the fear is unfounded,” he told DigitalSENSE Business News,
stressing that there is no basis for the speculations making a round about job
cut within the telecom sector due to such outsourcing.
He pointed out that the step by telecom operators will enable
operators to concentrate on their core competences and also make it possible
for those who are better equipped professionally to manage the towers to do so.
The eco-system of telecommunications business is growing like
a wide value-chain, which has Nigerians at the epicenter; “So, more jobs would
be created rather than lost, given that the new owners will definitely like to
grow their businesses.”
Ogunsanya cited for instance that the Call Centres which Airtel
outsourced to Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) partners some years ago, have
since grown in terms of number of employment instead of declining as were
wrongly envisaged, noting they grown exponentially by over 300 per cent,
contrary to the initial fears expressed by some people.
“Rather than create fears in the minds of our Engineers, who
will be moving to these Tower Management companies, and disaffection in the
hearts of Nigerians, who have been beneficiaries of the GSM revolution started
in 2001, we should highlight the immense advantages inherent in this strategic
business move by the telcos,” he underscored.
Airtel Nigeria, he also cited for instance, had already
outsourced its network operations likewise others to experts like Ericsson and
Huawei, who in turn outsourced maintenance services like fueling, cleaning and
security to local companies.
Ogunsanya, who was flanked by the company’s Director of Regulatory Affairs & Special Projects, Osondu Nwokoro and Director of Corporate Communications & CSR, Emeka Oparah, also disclosed that there is a lot of cheering stories coming from the telecommunications sector, saying the sector has attracted several billions of dollars worth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the over 12 years of the launch of Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications in Nigeria.
Remmy Nweke
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
Pix: Ogunsanya, Airtel’s CEO, middle, Emeka Opara, Osondu Nwokoro and Femi, PR Manager.
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