Barely, two days after saying the job cuts, which started from South Africa will not affect Nigeria, the MTN Group on Thursday, announced the sack of 65 workers, including divisional managers in its Nigerian operations.

In a press statement announcing the sack, MTN Nigeria said the move will help it embark "on an aggressive plan to refocus its customer service operations towards the next generation customer care."

The affected 65 permanent staff from the customer relations unit, include "60 customer care representatives, two managers; two supervisors; and one manger on suspension."

Staff performance reviews

In an email response to NEXT on the matter, Funmilayo Omogbenigun, the general manager of corporate Communication of MTN Nigeria, said, "The disengagements followed a series of internal reviews in the Customer Relations Division, specifically related to performance, values and standards.

"As per my previous response, the Customer Relations Division is repositioning itself for a dramatic and tangible improvement in customer service delivery, and this necessitates an enhancement of the quality of its current resources. As a responsive and responsible corporate organisation, we are committed to providing a service that exceeds the expectations of our customers."

According to a statement released by the company, MTN Nigeria has invested over N4.5 billion on technology that would support customer service delivery.

The company also said it plans to spend about N25 billion to establish new call centres that will create about 1,500 new jobs.

Ms. Omogbenigun said the jobs would be offered to he best quality staff, while our source revealed that the mobile telecoms giant, this month recruited 1,000 new temporary staff with 13 supervisors all in the customer care unit.

MTN Group

The MTN Group is one of the largest telecommunication operators in Africa with its major growth coming from South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.

The firm acknowledged that the current global recession is a major issue, as with other telecoms operators, as its subscribers' base has declined.

"With respect to MTN Nigeria, and the issue of an economic crunch, the company like every other business in Nigeria, has to a certain extent, experienced the generic fallout from a global recession," said Ms. Omogbenigun.

Citing the global financial crunch as the major reason, MTN South Africa sacked about 403 permanent and over 2,100 temporary staff (70% of 3,000 temporary staff).

Speaking on the latest job cuts in the industry, Emmanuel Ekuwem, the president, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, said, "I am just hearing this from you; I need to know more details about the lay off because MTN Nigeria should be making profit here in Nigeria, because this would raise questions if MTN is no longer making profit. But if the layoff is based on staff productive issue, companies can lay off staff in order not to drain the company from making profit."