Etisalat: Job losses loom as workers plan mass exit

There is palpable fear of job loss in Etisalat Nigeria, despite the Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) assurance to employees of Etisalat Nigeria that it will prevent any retrenchment of workers in the organisation.

However, there are fresh fears that following the ongoing restructuring by the company, several of its workers will either be sacked or take voluntary exit.

However, a reliable source at Etisalat, informed our correspondent over the weekend, that Etisalat’s employees have begun thinking otherwise and are seeking for new jobs in rival telecommunications’ companies, following the resignation of Hakeem Belo-Osagie, its chairman, last Friday.

He revealed that Etisalat’s financial crisis is similar to the Mobitel’s crisis of 10 years ago, “where a loan taken by Mobitel from the defunct Intercontinental Bank resulted in the receivership attempting to take over the form, and this eventually led to the collapse of the company and the death of its chairman, Charles Joseph.”

“Some policies of the government, such as, multiple taxation, Right of Way, among others, do not favour the telecoms’ industry; and this is, indeed, the remote cause of Etisalat’s crisis.”

According to him, “Part of government’s policy on forex is responsible for the state of the telecommunications’ industry. The issue of Etisalat with banks, which I don’t want to speak much on, is a typical example.”