MTN Sacks 65 Workers, Re-organises Operations

By Emma Okonji , Senior Correspondent, Lagos



MTN Nigeria has laid off 65 staff workers from its customer service operations in a bid to embark on an aggressive plan to refocus the customer service operations towards the next generation customer care.

Dropping the hint in Lagos on Thursday, Human Resources Executive, MTN, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, confirmed that management had approved an exit package for all concerned to cushion the effect.

According to her, the action was in line with the company’s internal reviews to better position the organisation to serve its customers for the future.

MTN, she said, sincerely thanked all the affected staff members for their contributions to MTN while in the employment of the company and wished them the very best in all their future endeavours.

Customer Relations Executive, MTN Nigeria, Akin Braithwaite, said the company had invested over N4.5 billion in state-of-the-art technology that supports a world-class customer service, and would want to maintain the standard.

He revealed that the planned additional expenditure on customer care in 2010 is about N25 billion, which includes the cost of new call centres pan Nigeria. These will create about 1,500 new jobs, he said.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to urgently arrest the depletion of the natural resources of the Lake Chad region, MTN Nigeria is throwing its weight behind the successful hosting of the World Conference being organised to save the Lake.

The two-day conference, which holds in Abuja from November 23, 2009, will not only sensitise the world to the deplorable state of infrastructure, lack of basic amenities and the untold hardship being faced by the inhabitants of the Lake Chad region, but also proffer solutions.

Speaking on the sponsorship of the conference, which has the theme: ‘Saving Lake Chad’, Bola Akingbade, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, MTN, said that MTN is passionate about making the difference wherever it matters.

According to Akingbade, “the depletion of the water resources of the Lake Chad basin has long reached the limits for sustainable development. The problem of water shortages within the region is begging for urgent attention and MTN, as a humane organisation, cannot afford to shy away from the imminent danger looming around the North-Eastern region of Nigeria as a result of the climate change there,” he said.

Lake Chad is an inland body of freshwater situated in the Sahelian zone of the West Central Africa, surrounded by Cameroon, Chad Republic, Niger Republic and Nigeria. It has supported over 20 million people in communities within these countries.



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