Telco has fired about 15% of its workforce

folarin okunola

May 2, 2017 12:45 PM

Sources say the sacked workers left the company on Friday, after accepting MTN’s offer of voluntary disengagement.

A big fine in Nigeria weighed on MTN's bottom line in 2016

Reports are making the rounds that MTN Nigeria has let go of about 280 of its staff in a major job cut that might have affected as much as 15% of the company’s Nigerian workforce.

Sources say the sacked workers left the company on Friday, after accepting MTN’s offer of voluntary disengagement, which the company had offered employees who had been with the company for at least five years.

“MTN offered a package to workers who have stayed for five years and above a voluntary exit package because it felt that most of them are not able to contribute much to the development of the company going forward,” a source said, according to Punch Online.

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“If, for instance, you have kids, you can’t compare the knowledge you have about the mobile phone with what they can do about telecoms services; they are more dexterous; so, the company wants to hire younger people who can keep pace with evolving trends in the industry instead of retaining those whose knowledge is limited to what they knew 16 years ago.”

Other reports say MTN offered the staff who had opted for voluntary exit three weeks’ gross salary multiplied by the number of years they have worked at the company. This is in addition to what they may have in their retirement savings accounts.

MTN Nigeria spokesperson Funso Aina has not been available to comment on the matter and the company is yet to offer an official statement. However, it could be in line with MTN Nigeria’s restructuring exercise in line with its IGNITE transformation initiative to reposition the telecommunications into divers segments of the economy.

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