I came across the letter below. It will definitely interest true Nigerians:


"Sir/Madam,

We wish to inform you of a secret plan to off-shore jobs hitherto performed by able and qualified Nigerians to foreign nationals in a foreign country – The Ericsson GNOC India Initiative.

This job offshore outsourcing initiative is to hit the entire Zain Managed Services NOC (Network Operations), currently managed by LM Ericsson Nigeria and under the managed services contract engaged in August 1, 2009.

For the avoidance of doubt, Outsourcing simply means, the transfer of work, responsibility, decision rights to an external subject matter expert entity. Offshore Outsourcing is a brand of outsourcing where work is transferred to countries that are of considerable distance from the client. There are obvious reasons why organizations practice offshore outsourcing, some of which include lack of requisite skills in client’s home country, cheaper labour rates, etc.

Considering all known reasons that influence offshore outsourcing, no clear reason can be said to be driving the case of Ericsson Zain Nigeria Managed Services, other than the share greed of maximizing profits, and providing employment for the teeming Indian populace at the expense of Nigerians. As a matter of fact, offshore outsourcing, as planned by Ericsson, only obtains in middle-east countries, such as Saudi Arabia. The reason being that the average Saudi national doesn’t need to work in order to get the basic necessities of life and so is not affected by Job off shoring.

In early 2009, the management of Zain Nigeria decided, as a strategic initiative, to outsource its entire technical operation across Africa. The objectives were only known to the owners of the business, whilst everyone else was told about the need for the company to remain both profitable and to provide improved services. It is on record that most countries in Africa resisted this move by Zain. The plan succeeded in Nigeria and a few others where the home governments were aloof and insensitive to the effects of implementing such plans.

Looking at one of the reasons adduced for outsourcing, it is only the owners of the business that can confirm how profitable Zain has been, since the outsourcing of its operation to Ericsson in August, 2009. The profitability of Zain Nigeria has always been a secret only known to a selected few.

Also as far as improved services are concerned, Subscribers of Zain Nigeria, who are incidentally mostly Nigerians, are in the best position to also confirm the theory of improved services being bandied.

Where Ericsson Zain Managed Services currently is:

In 2009, Zain transferred about 450 of its staff to Ericsson Nigeria, to manage the Nigerian technical operation. These former employees of Zain technically became staff of LM Ericsson Nigeria. They were made to sign new employment contracts with Ericsson, and new Ericsson identification Cards were issued.

Since then, a number of Nigerians who are part of this number have resigned either out of frustration, or for other personal reasons, to chase other life’s endeavors. This implies that the staff strength under the managed services agreement is currently less than the initial number. There has not been new recruitment or training of transferred staff; rather the Ericsson MS management has been on an endless journey of continuously juggling people between functions (Transition - Transformation). While this went on, several foreigners (Lebanese and Pakistanis) were brought in to handle key management positions within Zain Managed services code named “Project STAR”.

A few have since December 2009 been secretly sent packing after the Senior Ericsson Management discovered these ‘experienced’ EXPATs were only increasing overhead and adding no value. It is worth mentioning that experienced Nigerians were deliberately not considered for these positions - A fast track to frustration of professionals.



Where Ericsson wants to be:

Ericsson, as part of optimizing operational costs, has perfected plans to secretly transfer the hub of this Nigerian operation, which is the Network Operations Center, NOC, to a Global NOC, known as GNOC, which operates from India and is manned by Indians.

Currently, a good number of Indian nationals from Ericsson GNOC India are in Zain Managed services Nigerian operation to understudy locals, gather all relevant network operations info from the locals and return to India sometime in mid April. It is after this information gathering exercise is completed that the Operations management off-shoring will commence (before 1st Week of May 2010). This activity is being carried out under the guise that the visiting Indians are in Nigeria to improve on existing processes and procedures while in the actual sense they are in Lagos - Nigeria on Industrial espionage.

Ericsson Management in presentation slides late last month explained the need to be more responsive to customers, remain competitive and by extension, remain the market leader. Staff were informed of headcount implications but never told that the affected jobs will be given to Indians in India.

Recent revelations from careless conversation of visiting Indians from GNOC reveal that that every function that can be performed remotely, through IP network log in, shall cease to exist locally in Nigeria. This simply implies that all those previously performing such functions will automatically be relieved of their jobs and the leftover (no matter how experienced) will be required to perform only physical and menial tasks. A job position they started off with in GSM over nine to eight years ago.

The question that Nigerians need to ask their Home Affairs ministry is –

How and why such a large number of young Indians were granted Nigerian visas without investigation / verification and what reasons were presented for the approval of these visas?

Implications of this Offshore Outsourcing:

1. Nigeria does not have accurate statistics that captures the current unemployment rate in the country, but this callous initiative will definitely make this figure worse for Nigeria and reduce unemployment rate in India.

Efforts by successive governments to create employment opportunities have often yielded little or nothing so we cannot afford to further worsen the situation by carelessly allowing greedy organizations worsen the current unemployment rate in the country.

The management of the Ericsson Zain Managed Services in Nigeria under the leadership of Tahir Syed (COO and Pakistani ) is planning a massive 70% reduction in Nigerian NOC Operations staff headcount. This recovered 70% workforce is to be sourced and domiciled in India.

2. Indians who will be provided jobs under the planned offshore outsourcing will certainly pay their taxes to their home government as they will be working from India. Indian economy will definitely gain from this revenue redirection. The impact on internal revenue base of state governments and the federal government of Nigeria is better imagined. States like Lagos state with a high number of working professionals will be worst hit.



3. One of the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) of every profit making organization is to give back to the community via the provision of employment opportunities to citizens of the host community/country. Therefore, an organization that operates in Nigeria, with its services patronized by Nigerians, and subsequently makes profit from Nigeria, cannot and should not be allowed to export jobs to other nationals, thousands of miles away. It is quite worrying that Indians are at it again to shortchange Nigerians after the Vaswani Brothers’ years of exploitation.

4. Many Nigerian families, who have bread winners in the employ of Ericsson Zain Managed services, will certainly live to tell the story (of the negative impact) this planned massive lay-off will have on them. Nigeria is well known for its close family ties that includes responsibility for the less privileged among families, both nuclear and extended. The irony of this business initiative is robbing one Nigerian family of a means of livelihood to pay an Indian Family in Delhi.

5. GSM Technology is about Nine (9) years old in Nigeria and so experienced Nigerian professionals abound. The industry has in the last five (5) years witnessed personnel from the major GSM operators leaving Nigeria for Ericsson Contract jobs in several countries. However, with the Global recession and less investment by Operators in Network Expansion, there has been massive lay off of GSM technical professionals around the world especially those working for Network equipment vendors such as Ericsson etc. In such situations, a foreigner is normally the first asked to leave while locals are retained. The idea is that as a foreigner you’re expected to go back to your home country and apply for openings in your local Ericsson operation. The irony is that these same individuals and more are not considered for experienced positions in Ericsson Nigeria when they return. This job off shoring initiative will further worsen the plight of these individuals and other experienced GSM professionals.



Ericsson’s Responsibilities:

LM Ericsson Nigeria at this time should be asked to justify its planned action in Nigeria:

1. There is every need for Ericsson to defend this sweeping change that will lead to massively lay off of Nigerians in its employ. It must state, in unambiguous terms, how this new strategy job off shoring will benefit Nigeria and Nigerians. Downsizing in the face of harsh economic conditions is a viable solution but taking jobs away from Nigerians and transferring these same jobs to foreigners in another country is questionable.

2. Ericsson needs to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this is an inevitable end. By this, we mean the business can no more survive if jobs are not off shored to India.

3. They equally need to demonstrate, unequivocally, how they intend to mitigate the effects of such massive layoffs on qualified Nigerians working in their country.

4. Ericsson Nigeria needs to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this planned Indian Initiative is not meant to serve as goodwill gesture to the new Zain Africa Operations Owner Bharti India.

We therefore wish and hope that the Presidency, Senate, House of Representatives, State Governors, Judiciary, NCC, Immigration, Security agencies, Labour Unions, Press, Civil Rights Organizations demonstrate to exploiting forces that as Nigerians we can protect the interest of Nigerians. These stakeholders should provide hope for Nigerians and stop this foreign injustice from hatching."

@Poster

This is highly provocative and u didn't quote ur source. I think i understand ur reasons for that.

Nevertheless my solution is simple. If u r on zain netwrk pls recharge for the last time and send sms to all ur contacts about ur change of line.

I don't have to say much but that's d best we can do right now for our countru, our neighbours our friends, our family, our lives, our daily bread. And u know what its starting with me I just put my zain line with my wifes' too in inactive mode.

Since I'm not in government, civil right etcetera,the best u and I can do is that

if we can get 500,000 Zain subscribers to do this and d number still increasing it will work starting with urself. Even 20000 subscriber they will feel it. But xpecting d government to do sumtin? Forget it, they r cronies. Unless we act for ourselves it won't change!!! Someone must act!!! Without risk no reward Remember Doras' memo.

But if u r afraid to change for a reason or another then I have this word of a sage for u "he/she who trades freedom for security deserves neither"-Benjamin Franklin


PS
All this I say if ur post is true. And besides Indians have drained this economy 2much!!! We need 2 act

@poster if this piece of information is correct, please forward it to the official website of NCC,NLC and any of the national dailies, thats the only way early awareness can be created.
And more so, circulation of anti Zain text mssges bluntly can serve them right.

I got to know about the letter from a mail sent to me by a friend and thought it was important to share it with nairalanders

its on saharareporters.com and its true.

http://saharareporters.com/letters/your-letters/5749--planned-offshore-outsourcing-of-nigerian-telecom-jobs-to-indian-nationals-in-india--the-ericsson-gnoc-india-initiative.html

I don't blame the indians. It is our government I blame. But what do you even expect when Bharti of india is taking over zain.

The aftermath of offshoring the jobs that are meant to be given to Nigerians is beginning to take its toll on Zain network(Bharti)
The network has been in chaos for some time now, no thanks to the Indian Nationals and Ericsson,you cannot eat your cake and have it.
The Nigerian staffers did not buy their experience across the counter , it was developed with the advent of GSM in Nigeria which was indeed explosive.
The so called NCC as a govt regulatory agency is either oblivious of the current events or simply playing dumb.
Our NCC should should liaise with the National assembly to articulate a bill that would protect local content in ICT should be enacted