Airtel Nigeria on Tuesday said it had sacked some of its employees to enable it to reposition the business and “reinforce its competitiveness in the market place.
The workers affected by the development, were reportedly duly compensated.
A source said that the affected employees received three months’ salaries in lieu of notice and an additional one month pay for every year they had worked.
Punch newspapers quoted Emeka Opara, director of Corporate Communications, Airtel Nigeria as sayong that d the restructuring would focus on “aligning the company’s structure with its operating model.”
Opara said, “We wish to assure that, in accordance with best practices, a robust plan has been put in place to cushion the effect of the exercise on the impacted employees and ensure that the process is seamless.
“One of the key objectives is to create a high performing organisation, which satisfies the needs of all of our stakeholders, especially our customers, as we step into the next growth phase of our operation.”
Bharti Airtel had recently commenced final talks to sell four of its African subsidiaries to France’s Orange SA for $1bn in order to consolidate its stake in Nigeria.
It was gathered that after the sale, which should be completed before the end of this year, the company planned to plough about $700m – more than one-third of the funds – back into its investments in Nigeria.
The decision to sell the four subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone had to do with the company’s inability to become the dominant operator since its entry into Nigeria in 2010.
It was gathered that this had been dragging the carrier’s consolidated financials, which had kept it at a distant third behind MTN and Globacom.