News: No Job Losses, Etisalat New Management Reassures Workers

Etisalat Nigeria - The new management of Etisalat, yesterday, resumed duty and reassured all the telco’s workers that there will be no job losses as a result of the change in management.

This is as the House of Representatives and the Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, have asked the regulator to immediately conduct financial forensics on all telecom operators to determine their health status.

Reliable sources at Etisalat told Vanguard that the new managers, including Dr. Joseph Nnanna, Chairman; Mr. Boye Olusanya, Chief Executive Officer, and Mrs. Funke Ighodaro, Chief Financial Officer, who took over management of the telco following a lingering N541 billion loan repayment saga, told all staff to continue to carry out their normal duties without fear of loss of jobs because that was not the mission.

A source told Vanguard: “The new management has reassured us that nobody would lose his or her job as a result of the change in management. They challenged us to work even harder to ensure we cover lost grounds

"The atmosphere here is peaceful as usual and as a matter of fact, we are gearing to launch new products very soon. We are waiting for NCC’s approval on the products, otherwise we are ready to hit the ground running again.” Nnanna and his team took over management of Etisalat Nigeria, Tuesday, after the loan repayment saga, involving a consortium of local and foreign-based banks saw to the resignation of former chairman, Hakeem Bello-Osagie; CEO, Mathew Wilsher and CFO, Olawole Obasunloye.

The protracted issue also saw to the withdrawal of UAE foreign partners, Mubadala, and Emirates Telecommunications Service.

NCC to ensure financial health of telcos. Meanwhile, NCC, yesterday, also got the marching orders from both its board and the House of Representatives to ensure henceforth that Etisalat and other telcos were financially healthy to respond to all their financial obligations to avoid a repeat of the near embarrassment the Etisalat debt issue almost resulted into.

Director Public Affairs of the commission, Mr Tony Ojobo, in a statement, revealed that the NCC board had directed the management to ensure at all times that telcos meet the financial and technical integrity standards expected of them.

He, however, said the board commended the NCC management and the CBN for the manner they handled the Etisalat issue.

Conduct integrity, financial audits on all telcos -Reps. In a related development, the House of Representatives, yesterday, also charged the telecom regulator to quickly conduct immediate financial forensic on all telecom operators, with a view to preventing further crisis in the telecoms sub-sector of the economy.

Chairman, House Committee on Telecommunications, Saheed Akinade-Fijabi, issued the directive in Abuja after an emergency meeting with the management of the NCC, led by its Executive Commissioner (Stakeholder Management), Mr Sunday Dare.

Fijabi said the action became necessary in order to determine the true situation of things in the operations of the telecoms operators in the country, to prevent further loss of revenue to the Federal Government and loss of jobs by Nigerians in the sector.

Source: Vanguard