BTCL/Vodafone deal won’t lead to job losses
Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited does not envisage a new employee structure as it engages Vodafone as a strategic partner, Managing Director Paul Taylor says. BTCL announced the non-equity strategic partnership with global player Vodafone on Tuesday as part of its strategy to enhance commercial competitiveness.
As it has been the trend with other operators, Mascom and Orange Botswana; for instance when Orange brought Ericsson as a partner in 2014, some employees were then transferred to become Ericson employees whilst a few lost their jobs to accommodate the new structure. However, this will not be the case with BTCL, as Taylor told BG Business that this development shall not have any adverse impact on their workforce. “The structure will not change the employees will remain employees of BTCL. No job losses are expected.
We will just be getting quality service from Vodafone,” he said. BG Business can reveal that BTCL has been trailing behind its competitors, Orange and Mascom in bringing in a strategic partner to help improve service delivery and for the past 10 months Taylor and his team were tasked with identifying that strategic partner. From a shortlist of three, Vodafone emerged the best suitable partner for BTCL and was engaged on a three-year renewable contract. BTCL which is expected to release its Initial Public Offer for listing this financial year, has a strategic plan premised on fixed mobile and convergence transformation. As a result, certain enhancements to capabilities needed to support these developments and strategy; such as access to innovation, talent management, wholesale; that is mobile roaming, capacity, minutes and products.
The company executives therefore felt there was a need for a strategic partner to help close gaps identified. Taylor explained that, “this is a non-equity partnership agreement, BTCL becomes Vodafone’s preferred partner in Botswana and the two companies will jointly offer business and consumer customers a range of products and services.” BTCL will also benefit from access to Vodafone best practice and will be able to enhance its customer proposition in Botswana with Vodafone’s products and services. Vodafone’s multinational corporate customers will benefit from the addition of Botswana to their existing contracts for internationally managed services, while continuing to be serviced via a single point of contact.
He said the partnership will allow BTCL to better differentiate against competition, deliver innovative communications solutions for the benefit of its customers and visitors to Botswana. Vodafone, on the other hand, will leverage on BTCL extensive network coverage. Vodafone Partner Markets Chief Executive Stefano Gastaut said, “This strategic partnership with BTCL for Botswana will enable us to expand our presence in Africa and extend the reach of our products and services across the region.
It will also deliver enhanced roaming benefits for our consumer and multinational corporate customers.” Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 54 more and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31 December 2014, Vodafone had 444 million mobile customers and 11.8 million fixed broadband customers.
