Those asked to leave were offered fresh opportunities, says MTN

MTN Nigeria has broken its silence on reports that it recently dismissed many workers.

The company, which said the reports were inaccurate, explained that that those affected were offered the opportunity to join new call centres.

Amina Oyagbola, an executive of MTN, explained that the organisation’s call centre operations had been outsourced since 2008, and that the recent exercise was the “second phase of a change-in-vendor process”.

“MTN’s attention has been drawn to online media reports claiming that the company has sacked thousands of workers at its call centres,” Oyagbola said in a statement.

“The reports are incorrect. The second phase of a change-in-vendor process took place last week, offering interested workers the opportunity to join the new call centres owned and operated by the vendor; ISON BPO.

“MTN signed an outsourcing contract with ISON BPO Limited in 2015 following a competitive bid process. Indeed MTN’s call centre operations were outsourced to independent third party agencies since 2008, as part of continued efforts to improve the efficiency and quality of customer service delivery in MTN.

On his part, Pravin Kumar, ISON’s group CEO  said: “We have been managing MTN’s call centres since last year when the first phase of the transition was carried out, with the second phase taking place at this time.

“We were pleased to have emerged as the new partner to deliver cost-effective solutions, adopting state-of-the-art technology that supports world-class customer service. The drive for efficient customer service delivery without compromising on quality within prevailing economic realities comes with structural adjustments and we work to balance this with the need to ensure the sustainability of our operations.

“We have continued to engage with those who are interested in taking up the opportunity to work with ISON under agreed terms. At ISON, we remain committed to delivering outsourcing solutions to our clients that also provide thousands of job opportunities to members of the communities in which we operate.”