MTN Nigeria on Monday warned that should there be attacks
on its facilities, it might be forced to close shop and 99 per
cent of its over 6,000 workforce in the country, who are
Nigerians, would be thrown into the labour market.
It also said that calls for the boycott of its services were
unjustified as such an action would affect its support chain,
which could cause another 500,000 Nigerians to lose their
means of livelihood.
The company stated this in Lagos some hours after two
groups protested in its Abuja and Benin offices against the
killing of foreigners in its home country, South Africa.
According to the Corporate Service Executive, MTN Nigeria,
Mr. Wale Goodluck, there are only 12 expatriates working for
the company in the country, compared to a workforce of 6,000
Nigerians.
Goodluck said, “So, if people go ahead with their threats to
attack our facilities, what that means is that we may be
forced to close down the business in Nigeria and about 6,000
Nigerians that make up 99 per cent of our workforce will be
unemployed.
“Then, when you look at our support chain, we have about
500,000 Nigerians gainfully employed. So, boycotting our
services simply means destroying so many other Nigerian
businesses and making over 500,000 other Nigerians to lose
their jobs.
“This business supports a lot of businesses across the length
and breadth of Nigeria. Many of the businesses that are
affiliated to South Africa are in the retail space, supporting the
growth of Nigeria and employing so many Nigerians.”
He noted that the company had spent in excess of $15bn on
capital expenditure growing the telecommunications business
in Nigeria.
“We see no revenge of Xenophobia and we commend the role
the Nigerian High Commissioner in South Africa has played; at
least there has been no fatality on the part of any Nigerian,”
Goodluck added.
