---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 2:33 PM Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] Zain South Sudan cuts operations, fires staff To: Group <[email protected]>
Zain South Sudan cuts operations, fires staff to survive war Company focusing operations on major towns, limiting some of its coverage elsewhere Published: 16:22 August 26, 2016 Bloomberg - Gulf News Juba: Zain South Sudan, a unit of Kuwait’s largest mobile-phone provider, has reduced operations and cut its number of expatriate staff in an attempt to survive an economic crisis in the African nation spurred by more than two years of civil war. The company is focusing operations on major towns, limiting some of its coverage elsewhere, and has reorganised its 88-strong workforce by cutting the number of foreign staff and hiring more locals, according to Daniel Deng Lual, the senior director for administration and corporate relations. Its parent, Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co., which has invested at least $500 million (Dh1.8 billion) in the venture, won’t provide more because the unit has failed to make a profit, he said. “Now we are only at a level of survival,” Lual said in an August 23 interview in South Sudan’s capital, Juba. “There’s no investor who is ready to put more money, but we have to be self-dependent — we have to do everything possible to make us survive.” A conflict that erupted in December 2013 has claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused economic ruin in what was already one of the world’s 20 least-developed countries. Landlocked South Sudan has sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest crude reserves yet is pumping as little as 120,000 barrels a day, about half its output just before the war began. The International Monetary Fund projected last year that South Sudan’s economy would contract 5.3 per cent, while inflation exceeded 660 per cent in July. Major towns A transitional government to end the conflict was thrown into turmoil in July when violence flared again in Juba. Hundreds of people were killed and rebel leader-turned-vice-president Riek Machar and his forces fled the city. Sporadic fighting has since rocked the north and east of the country. “We are now concentrating on major towns which can sustain our financial conditions,” said Lual, naming Juba and the state capitals of Yei and Bor as well as northern Upper Nile, where South Sudan’s largest oilfields are located. He said buying and transporting fuel to power Zain’s infrastructure in more remote and dangerous areas has been complicated and expensive. The operation has a total of 288 network sites, according to Lual. “If there is insecurity, people need communication and it is for Zain just to keep the name and the network working,” Lual said. The provider, which competes with the South Sudanese unit of South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd, targets building its subscriber-base to 1 million from about 711,000, Lual said. The country’s population is about 12.3 million, according to the World Bank. “Having a phone has now become a luxury,” Lual said. “If you look at the whole population, there are about 4 million who can afford a phone and this is where we are now competing, and profit has been minimal in the business.” http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/telecoms/zain-south-sud an-cuts-operations-fires-staff-to-survive-war-1.1885684 END ______________________ John Ashworth [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile) +44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) Skype: jashworth1 PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. 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