Vodafone Ghana has complained about what it says is a constant rising cost of its operations as a result of the prolonged load-shedding exercise in the country.
According to the second biggest telecom company in the country, cost of fuel to power its standby generators for instance, has drastically short up by more than 155 per cent since last year.
Again, it said the cost of spare parts and other operational expenses had also skyrocketed and assuming alarming proportions.
The situation, the company said, was having serious impact on its bottom-line, affecting the quality of service provided to its customers while institutions which heavily relied on its services were also feeling the heat.
Vodafone’s complaints come at a time when its competitors, as well as many other industries in the country, both large and small, are complaining about the impact of the load shedding exercise on their businesses.
The Director of External Affairs of the company, Mr Gayheart Mensah, in an interview in Accra said the company had an obligation to deliver the best of service to its customers but the effort was being thwarted by the frequent power cuts which disrupted services in many areas.
“We have invested
heavily in standby generators to power all our cell sites across the country”, he said but noted that in spite of that there were still some challenges which affect the service inadvertently.
Impact on turnover
Although he did not mention figures, he said the company’s turnover was being badly impacted.
Mr Mensah said the erratic electricity supply was having a serious impact on the sale of recharge cards and the effect was also being felt by vendors and sales agents of the company.
“Instead of using their phones to make important business calls during the day, people are seen charging their phones and they also refuse to stay online for long because of fear of losing power in their batteries”, he said.
Mr Mensah said as a result, revenue from that side of the business was suffering badly while agents, among others in the value chain, were also feeling the impact.
He said government’s revenue from the business as a result of its stake in the company was also being affected.
The government has a 30-per cent stake in the company while Vodafone has the controlling stake of 70 per cent.
Investors
He said the situation was also driving investors away as they refused to pump money into the economy.
He said the load-shedding was not being undertaken with any workable timetable, a situation which did not allow businesses to plan.
Govt effort
He acknowledged the government’s effort to resolve the present situation to bring the load shedding exercise to an end.
Mr Mensah mentioned the Atuabo gas project and the new discoveries made offshore and expressed the hope that the resultant effects would soon be felt to return businesses and the economy in general back on track.
Advice to customers
Consequently, he urged customers of the company to bear with it in these trying moments as efforts were still underway to ensure that services to them remained of higher quality with fewer disruptions using alternative sources to power their systems.
Credit: Graphic