Nicolas Bourg (pictured), Telecel co-founder and director, said the company has “no intention of firing anyone”. He was speaking to Citi Business News.
Bourg said: “This is not how we operate at Telecel. We have proven this with different organizations that we have in different sectors … Our plan is to keep all Vodafone employees.”
Telecel, refounded five years ago after exiting the telecoms business in 2003, is closely associated with French telecoms businessman Xavier Niel. Bourg, who was CEO of the Niel Group until 2018, has been group managing partner of Telecel ever since.
Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) gave its approval for Telecel to buy a 70% stake in Vodafone Ghana two weeks ago.
However the company has underperformed since Vodafone bought the company in 2017, with its market share dropping from 24.1% to 17.9%.
According to the latest NCA data, Vodafone Ghana is two points away from losing its second place in the telecoms market to AirtelTigo, which holds 16.7% of the market share. The Ghanaian government bought AirtelTigo in November 2021.
Market leader is MTN, which now controls 63.1% of the telecoms market, up 15.5 percentage points since 2017.
Telecel said it would develop its presence in Ghana, in particular through the extension of 4G coverage to allow more people to enjoy high speed internet.
The Telecel group as a whole says it plans to spend $700 million in Africa over the next five years in the fields of communications and e-commerce.
