Vodafone Seals Deal-Settles 70 % Stake in GT (Front Page)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah

VODAFONE International Holdings Company Limited of the United Kingdom has made a total payment of $900 million to the Government of Ghana to cover the cost of the 70 per cent Ghana Telecom shares the company purchased.
The payment was made on August 15, 2008, barely 24 hours after Parliament had voted in favour of the sale.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, the Controller and Accountant General, Mr Christian Tetteh Sottie, said the payment was done through a bank transfer to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Friday, a day after the parliamentary approval was given.
The interview was prompted by a statement made by the Head of Corporate Communications and Customer Care of GT, Major Albert B. Don-Chebe (retd), to the effect that the two companies started working together on Monday, August 18, 2008.
Mr Sottie explained that after the payment was made, the BoG subsequently informed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, which is the custodian of state funds and also has the responsibility to disburse such funds.
“The money has been paid and is now in government chest ready for disbursement,” he said.
He stated that now that the necessary payments had been made, Vodafone and GT could legally start their joint operation without any hindrance.
An approval was given to the GT-Vodafone deal after days of intense and hectic debate between the government and staff of GT on one side and some members of the opposition parties, as well as some identifiable groups, on the other side.
By a majority decision, Members of Parliament (MPs) approved the sale agreement on August 14, 2008, endorsing the government’s request to sell the shares to Vodafone.
Whilst 124 MPs voted for the approval of the agreement, 74 of them voted against it.
When the Daily Graphic visited the premises of GT on Monday, the atmosphere was that of excitement as workers of GT, including those from the regions, were preparing to have their first official meeting with a team from Vodafone UK at a workers durbar in Accra.
The purpose of the meeting was to enable the staff of GT to interact with the officials of Vodafone as the two companies got ready to start working in a new partnership.
A source within GT said the two groups would waste no time but quickly move into serious work now that Parliament had given approval for the deal to be effected.
Meanwhile, $40 million is to paid into an escrow account towards employee resettlement in the event of redundancy under the Ghana Telecom-Vodafone deal, reports Emmanuel Bonney
The Corporate Communications of GT, Maj (retd) Don-Achebe explained that the Communications Workers Union (CWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) had remained apprehensive about the government holding the money for the workers.
He said in case there were layoffs, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of the workers would be applied strictly, hence there was no cause for alarm.
He said the workers, who knew the telecommunications industry very well and knew the status of GT, had been very supportive.
At the moment, he said, the GT management was trying to familiarise the workers with the corporate governance structure of Vodafone which had its own ways of doing things, adding that Vodafone is also taking the opportunity to learn about the GT environment.
“We are drawing a programme of activities with objectives and timelines,” he indicated, adding that the issue of people waiting for broadbands, and fixed lines among other things would be a thing of the past.
Apart from upgrading infrastructure and improvement in broadbands, he said, the company would work towards reducing power outage to its cell sites to the “bearest minimum or none at all”.
Major (retd) Don-Achebe said the quality of service was a major priority and that the company would make customers kings and queens.