New mobile telecommunications giant Zain, is preparing the grounds for what many industry watchers think would be grand launching of its operations in Ghana within this last quarter. Boahene Asamoah interviews the CEO for Africa, Chris Gabriel on the prospects of Zain brand in the highly competitive mobile phone market and general market conditions.
ZAIN telecommunications, a global mobile operator says it has invested over half a billion dollars in its Ghana operations as the company gears up to launch its brand and product on the Ghana market sometime next month.
The company plans to invest additional $100 million in the Ghana operations next year as part of its commitment to increase its market penetration strategies.
Management are tight lip on the exact day of the launching of the Zain brand.
Market watchers are upbeat that given the recent successful global brand of Celtel to Zain in 14 countries simultaneously, the Ghana launching is expected to take off in great style amidst huge media publicity.
“We are going to compete on superior quality and one network concept”, says Chris Gabriel, the Chief Executive Officer for Africa.
Chris explains that the company’s strategy of compete of network quality and the one network were expected to differentiate its brand from the competition.
The company says it intends to have 85 per cent coverage along the major roads through the Northern part of the
“We intend to make significant investments in Ghana and in African operations”, adding that it was to leverage.
Zain’s Ghana operations one-network operations when launched would enable customer access their mobile phones in Burkina Fasso, Nigeria and Sierra while paying for the same local charges and abolishing high roaming charges.
However over the next one year Zain customers in Ghana would be access to the groups network in 22 operations across Africa, Middle East and Europe.
So far, Zain Ghana has employed over 270 people already and there are indications that many more employment opportunities exist as the company expands operations.
The company said it has outlines a policy to ensure that 70 per cent of employees who excel at their jobs were promoted to management positions and that indeed the Ghana operations was determined to make Ghana a net exporter of human capital across the group’s 22 operations.
Price wars was a major concern for Chris, who thinks that that would ultimately lead to the collapse of the industry and undermine shareholders fund and thereby stifle investments in the sector.
As the company’s research, network quality remains a major source of concern for customers in Ghana, but Zain to ensure high level of network quality.
The network has over the past years invested over 12 million in its Africa operations and has operations in 14 African countries.
Zain would operating on the 3-G platform has added value services and the company hope to provide these services to the Ghanaian customers.
Touching on the mobile penetration rate which is currently at 35 per cent, Mr Gabriel said mobile penetration does not peak at 100 per cent and stated that in some countries mobile penetration is over 150 per cent and expressed optimism that the industry had potential to grow further.
“What Zain offers is value for money, customer service delivery affordable products and also expansion of our network to rural areas.”
Zain says they welcome competition provided that such a competition was rational.
Many experts say with five global brands in the country, consolidation was expected to happen among major players while there would be a sizeable proliferation of small operators across Africa.
Chris was of the view that industry players must however collaborate and encourage co-operation and discussions on market dynamics, especially in the area of taxation and infrastructure sharing.
The country has four operating brands, MTN a multinational mobile phone operator, TIGO, another international brand, Kasapa, which is an affiliate of Hutchison, another multinational and One-Touch, a local brand has just been bought by the world’s leading brand, Vodafone.
Zain and Globacom are the new operators soon to begin operations. Both are multinational brands.
Chris was appointed CEO of Zain Africa December 1, 2007 and plays a vital role, overseeing all Zain's 15 operations in Africa that currently serve over 33 million active customers representing two-thirds of Zain's total customer base.
Previous to this appointment, Chris was Chief Officer of ACE, from May 2007, where he was accountable for defining, executing and delivering Zain’s Global ACE Strategy (Accelerate, Consolidate and Expand); leading and managing the Group’s international and regional IPO’sBusiness Transformation and Performance Improvement.
Chris is an experienced international executive with a flair for operational excellence and over achievement in high growth start up, turn-around and challenging competitive environments. He is also a recognised leader in team building, mentoring, human capital development and public speaking.
Prior to joining Zain, Chris has played vital roles as Interim Chief Executive, Group Chief Financial Officer and Group Chief Information Officer in several regional telecom companies.
In addition, Chris was the Director, Finance for SingTel Optus Business in Australia. Major achievements during his time with
Chris has over 25 years experience in the Information Technology and Communications sectors, having developed his strategic, managerial and financial expertise through a wide variety of roles spanning Financial Management, Business Process Engineering, Customer Care and Billing, Product Development, Commercial Operations, Facilities, Strategic Programs, year 2000 Remediation, Information Technology and Corporate Acquisitions. He has previously held senior executive positions with Ericsson, Unisys and ComputerLand.
Chris holds a Bachelor of Business in Finance; CPA; an MBA in Marketing; a Bachelor of Law; a Diploma of Corporate Management and an Advanced Diploma Company Director.
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