As part of a strategy to cut costs across Africa, Zain Nigeria has signed a five-year outsourcing agreement with Ericsson.
Ericsson will take up the management of most of the telecoms company's networks and field operations in Nigeria, according to a Zain statement released this morning. Alongside the 4 000 sites, Ericsson has also agreed to take on 450 of the company's employees.
The Kuwaiti-based business has also decided to let go 300 staff members from its Nigerian operation. The move comes as no surprise, since the company announced in early May it had decided to cut 2 000 jobs by 2011 to boost margins.
The company's new business model is expected to inject 5% into margins. The layoffs began in Kenya and Zambia, although the Zambian minister of labour forced Zain to cut down the number of job cuts from almost 100 to 58.
CEO of Zain Africa Chris Gabriel says he is confident the outsourcing deal will be beneficial for the company and its customers. “We will be in a far stronger position to dedicate resources and assets to our core business operations, continuing to improve customer support, developing and launching new products, services and mobile applications,” he adds.
Zain's statement says the agreement with Ericsson will improve network efficiency and reduce operating costs across Nigeria. “It will further strengthen Zain's competitiveness by achieving savings in network operations, a shorter time-to-market for new services and technologies, and improve the overall quality of service.”
The company has a presence in 16 African countries, from Sierra Leone, in West Africa, to Madagascar.
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