ZTE Reiterates Commitment to Work Ethics, Labour Welfare
Despite the current economic downturn that has adversely affected the telecommunications industry, ZTE Nigeria Limited has expressed its commitment to continuing investment in the economy and most importantly in the development of local human capital.
ZTE Nigeria Limited is the Nigerian subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, which is one of the leading multinational ICT solution and service providers in the world. ZTE is listed in the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchange Market. It operates in 160 countries with a total turnover of over $15 billion and over 60,000 staff.
Speaking in Lagos, Head of Administration at ZTE Nigeria, Yawei Yang said that the company, which started operations in 2002 and which has over hundreds of direct and indirect Nigerian employees, had impacted positively on Nigeria’s economy through execution of a number of viable projects. She mentioned such projects to include the National project for government and telecommunication project for operators in Nigeria.
“We recognised the current situation in Nigeria but are going to maintain our high standard in terms of service delivery and our commitment to good welfare package for our staff. We are among the few telecoms companies that allow all our staff to unionise, we have generous welfare packages that include trainings and sundry allowances even including mobile phone allowance because of our believe in the development of the local workforce,” she said.
Reeling out the company’s labour profile, she said: “We have not outsourced any of our operations outside Nigeria as some telecoms firms are currently doing to cut costs. Only 17 per cent of our entire work force are foreigners and we have always operated within the ambit of the Extant Immigration laws and Regulations of Nigeria 2015 and all other administrative directives.” On allegation of whether the company recently flouted expatriate quota limits, Yang said: “It is true that our ZTE China staff routinely visit Nigeria on Business Visa as support group for discussions with telecommunication operators to enable us have good business prospects leading to signing of agreement which unfortunately has not been successful since 2014.”
“It is the practice and this is for most foreign companies operating in Nigeria that those coming for such business discussions come with Business Visas because that is just for short visit and it is allowed under the law. They only come around when we have some business discussions and then travel out of Nigeria within a short time. The law is there for all to see,” she said.