Takeover of Vodafone Ghana: “we have no intention of laying off workers”, reassures Telecel
February 1st 2023
After Millicom and Bharti Airtel in 2021, the telecoms market is seeing a new start for an investor. Although this is for the benefit of a new investor, the situation does not less raise questions about the level of competitive pressure at the origin of this rapid restructuring of the market.
Nicolas Bourg, co-founder and director of the board of directors of the Telecel group, wanted to reassure Vodafone Ghana employees of their job security. In an interview with Citi Business News , he said the company has “no intention of firing anyone. This is not how we operate at Telecel. We have proven this with different organizations that we have in different sectors ”. “ Our plan is to keep all Vodafone employees ,” he stressed.
Nicolas Bourg’s statement, two weeks after the approval of the National Communications Authority (NCA) on the sale of Vodafone Ghana to Telecel Group, is strategic and necessary in order to keep employees mobilized. They are rightly worried about their professional future. A demobilization of the teams during this sensitive transitional period could further harm the activities of Vodafone Ghana, which has seen its performance drop in the Ghanaian market since 2017.
Over the past six years, the telecom company has seen its subscriber market share drop from 24.10% to 17.87%, between June 2017 and June 2022. According to the latest NCA data, Vodafone Ghana is two points away from losing its second place in the telecoms market to AirtelTigo, which holds 16.66% of the market share. MTN, on the contrary, has gained in power and now controls 63.06% of the telecoms market. Up 15.5 points since 2017.
The process of acquisition of Vodafone Ghana by Telecel comes 13 months after the acquisition of AirtelTigo by the Ghanaian government. In November 2021, the Indian telecom group Bharti Airtel announced the finalization of the operation to sell 100% of the company.
For its part, Telecel is optimistic about its entry into the country. The company announces substantial capital to develop its presence, in particular through the extension of 4G coverage to allow a large part of the population to enjoy very high speed Internet connectivity, the deployment of innovative fintech solutions to further improve financial inclusion.
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