Best yet to come from Vodafone - Yolanda Cuba

Vodafone Ghana says it is rolling new cell sites and upgrading existing ones to offer its 4G LTE subscribers more exciting experience.

“There are some cell sites that are congested today because we did not expect that kind of response from our customers,” Yolanda Cuba, immediate past Managing Director of Vodafone Ghana said.

Speaking in a pre-departure interview with a section of the media in Accra she said the company expected some challenges with the rollout of the 4G but was working around the clock to fix them.

4G LTE

On the speed of the 4G currently Ms Cuba said, “It’s absolutely a work in progress. The network is just about a week old. We anticipate about three months of stabilisation and optimisation of the network.”

She said the company was very optimistic of offering customers the best of services and products.

Balance sheet restructuring   

She said the company had completed the restructuring of its balance sheet to offer the company a new lease of life.

She said the two shareholders of the company which are the government of Ghana and the Vodafone Group agreed to convert some of the company’s debt into equity adding that the move would help the company to grow.

“We have finally actually got the balance sheet restructured. We have converted all the debt into equity. Most of our debt is now equity. So we have moved from what is technically insolvent position to a solvent position. Our balance sheet is now on a healthy footing,” she said.

Achievements

On achievements during her tenure of office she said, “I think my three years in Ghana has been fantastic, to be honest and I’ve enjoyed every minute of them. It’s not obviously been without challenges.”

She said with her leadership and supports from her team the company’s subscriber base was now above 10 million.

“The 4G launch has been really a great accomplishment because together with the team, we really started off three years ago trying to acquire the license and finally seeing it launch has been a great thing for us,” she said.

Ms Yolanda also cited the re-launch of the company’s strategy and mission to position the company as the leading technology igniting Ghana’s digital revolution as one great achievement.

Industry challenges & way forward

On her thoughts on the challenges confronting the industry and the way forward she said, “I would like to see closer working relations with the regulator, policy makers, the ministry and all the players in the market.”

She said players in the industry could share their resources to cut down cost and serve underserved areas in the country.

 “I lay fibre here and my competitor lay fibre right next door, but yet, there are areas that do not have fibre at all. It does not make sense in a country where we are constrained from the capital perspective. I don’t think it does, that’s why I believe in working together. Other countries have problems in different ways for example, New Zealand actually have this module where government said we are actually going to have one rollout of fibre, that’s it. Other countries have gone with modules when they said, “We will force sharing of infrastructure. You compete for customers but you don’t compete for infrastructure”.

Ms Yolada expressed optimism that Vodafone would double its market share and continue to offer the best in the market to customers.

By David Adadevoh