| Senate commends Celtel
on rural distribution initiative
By SOLA FANAWOPO
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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L-R:
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Celtel
Nigeria, Bayo Ligali; Chairman, Senate Committee on
Communication, Senator Sylvester Annyanwu (1st from
left); Senator Abubakar Gada; Senator Yisa Braimoh;
and Chief Technical Officer, Celtel, John Early, during
the Senate Committee on Communication tour of Celtel
facility in Lagos
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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The Senate has commended Celtel for introducing rural entrepreneurial
programme, the Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI), saying
the project is capable of creating wealth, jobs and goodwill
for telecom operators in rural areas across the country.
According to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Communication,
Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, who along with other senators paid
a working visit to Celtel, said a good implementation of RAI
will lead to reduced agitation by communities, raise employment
level, lower idleness among youths, and lessen insecurity
of telecom facilities in communities across the country.
The Senate Communication Committee Chairman, who lead other
distinguished senators including Senator Tanko Ayuba, Senator
Yisa Braimoh, Senator Abubakar Gada and others, expressed
delight at the efforts made by Celtel to offer improved quality
of service to its customers.
Speaking during the visit, the Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer of Celtel, Mr. Bayo Ligali, said the company
will soon embark on a national rollout, having successfully
completed the pilot programme in the South East Region.
Explaining the structure of the programme, Chief Operating
Officer, Lars Stork , told the senators that efforts is made
to seek and engage indigenes of local communities where Celtel
operates, train and support them to become local distribution
partners.
He added that Celtel rural distribution partners are usually
provided motorbikes, payphones and other support materials
in addition to sharing with them the revenue from the BTS
situated in their communities, to encourage them and assist
them to succeed in their business.
He said the programme had been very successful in the South-east
Region which was used for the pilot programme.
Senator Anyanwu said the visit to telecom operators was inspired
by growing public concern about the quality of service (QoS)
level in the industry and the need to strengthen the resolve
of the networks to meet the target quality threshold.
He explained that the visit would enable the team to follow
up on previous efforts by the National Assembly to encourage
operators to improve on the quality of their service, stressing
that the visit is part of the oversight function of Senate.
The senators pointed at the commissioning of Celtel Abuja
Switch, as a demonstration of Celtel’s determination
to stick to the roadmap for QoS improvement it submitted to
the National Assembly recently.
Other activities of the company which came up for commendation
included the testing of alternate power supply programme,
network expansion, generator swap out and generator dualisation
projects, and payphone rollout programme and the employment
of Nigerians.
The senators called for increased community relations activities,
deployment of solar panels on sites, especially in the northern
part of the country to safeguard the company from the problem
associated with the current power supply system, and for the
listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The senators were earlier taken on a tour of the facilities
at Chouse, Oyin Jolayemi, Street, Victoria Island, Lagos ,
by the CEO, Chief Technical Officer, John Earley, Chief Information
Officer, John Ayoh and Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Foley
.
At the end of the tour, the team was joined in a meeting at
the Board Room by the Chief Operating Officer, Lars Stork
and Chief Human Resources Officer, Roy Masamba, and other
Exco members.
Speaking with the members of the Committee the CEO explained
the company is committed to meeting the target QoS threshold
standard by June 2008. He said the company embarked on regionalisation
because of the need to bring service closer to the people.
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