Nigeria: Zain to invest $1bn per annum until 2011
In a meeting with journalists in Abuja, Bayo Ligali, CEO of Zain Nigeria has said the group will spend $1bn per annum in Nigeria till 2011.
Ligali said Zain had also expanded its borderless network known as, “One Network,” from 12 African countries to 22 countries in both Africa and the Middle East.
He said that the 22 countries were across Africa and the Middle East, thereby enabling the company’s customers in Nigeria to benefit from the globalisation of the network.
On the benefits of the globalisation exercise, the Zain CEO said the cost of operations would begin to go down due to the economies of scale of being a member of a large group.
He said, “Our speed to market will increase significantly as we launch new products and services faster and with technical support and global innovations from a major player in the telecoms industry, the Zain Group.
“Another benefit of Zain is that more job opportunities will be created for Nigerians as the network expands. We currently employ 2,500 people directly and another 10,000 indirectly through our dealers’ outlets.
“The engineering, construction, security, advertising, media and printing industries will continue to be major beneficiaries of our operations. I won’t forget diesel and generator sellers, whose business account for over 65 per cent of our costs.”
Ligali added that the company’s workforce in the country would also gain tremendous impact from the move as increased opportunities for training and development as well as access to global best practices would be available to them.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Communications, Mr. John Odey, has commended Zain for its investment in infrastructure development across various communities in Nigeria.
He said the expansion had brought relief to many people, especially rural dwellers.
Odey was quoted as commending the recent rebranding of the company to Zain, adding that government welcomed the introduction of the Zain brand in line with the leading global mobile operator in the Africa and the Middle East, Zain Group’s worldwide ambition of becoming a big worldwide brand.
Explaining the reasons for the transformation of Celtel to Zain, Ligali said the brand identity change was in line with the company’s strategy of unifying its brands into one big, strong, easily recognisable and acceptable global brand.
