By William
Yaw Owusu
Thursday
June 28, 2018
Vodafone Ghana has released findings of a socio
-economic impact study it commissioned a private firm to conduct for it.
The study, which is believed to be the first to have
been done on a large scale by a mobile telecommunications operator,
investigated the impact of the company’s activities on the economic development
of the country from 2014 to 2017.
Concluded last year, the study, conducted by QBR
Research Consultants & Practitioners - a marketing, public relations and
social research with Dr. Kweku Rockson as Principal Consultant, made
interesting findings.
At the official release of the report in Accra on
Tuesday, Dr. Rockson said their findings showed that Vodafone paid taxes of
about GH¢700 million within the period under review and VAT collected reached
some GH¢302 million which represented 1.43% for 2014, 1.85% for 2015 and 1.76%
for 2016 during the period.
He said Vodafone paid GH¢186 million as
Communication Service Tax over the period, representing 15.85% for 2014, 22.65%
for 2015 and 23.02% for 2016 while Vodafone's SSNIT contribution hit GH¢24.4
million for the three year period.
On capital expenditure, Dr. Rockson said their
findings showed that Vodafone hit GH¢487.6 over the period, which translates
into some 2.11% in 2014, 2.67% in 2015 and 2.99% in 2016, representing a
percentage of total national capital expenditure.
He said the study showed that Vodafone Ghana created
a lot of direct and indirect job opportunities in the country and was also a
major source of employment and skills transfer.
“In the periods reviewed, our findings showed that
Vodafone provided incomes, benefits and a high-technology career path for over
1,117 people in direct employment,” Dr. Rockson said, adding “Vodafone has
contractual relationships with many distributors, suppliers and partner
companies in the country, each of which relies to a greater or lesser extent on
revenues to pay their employees’ wages.”
Apart from direct employment, the company also
created indirect employment in the area of distribution, wholesale and
retailing.
About 520,000 Mobile Money Agents were estimated to
have been engaged.
“There was a huge multiplier effect due to the
presence of street vendors and those who have small kiosks or tables which are
protected by umbrellas,” he said.
He said that in measuring the financial impact of
Vodafone on Culture and Creative Arts (Entertainment), Education, Health and Corporate
Social Responsibility, they compared the Vodafone’s spending to that of the
various ministries.
Dr. Rockson said “there was GH¢10 million as
expenditure on creative aArts as a percentage of Ministry of Tourism, Arts and
Culture’s (MTAC) Annual Allocation. There was also a GH¢10.7 million as
expenditure on health as a percentage of Ministry of Health’s annual allocation
and again GH¢1.6 million as expenditure on education as a percentage of
Ministry of Education’s annual allocation all within the period under review.”
He also said that the data reviewed indicated that
Vodafone’s activities had a positive impact on agriculture where communication
technology through mobile phones provided information about the weather,
markets prices and good farming practices.
“The Farmers’ Club is a special SIM which has been
designed to assist farmers. Over 65,000
customers invested over GH¢4 million since launch and donates 600 phones to
female farmers,” he said.
Yolanda Cuba, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, in an
introductory remark said, “Vodafone Foundation and Vodafone Health have brought
positive live changing experience to many people.”
She said Vodafone Health had supervised about 96
Healthline surgeries, adding that over 1,000 patients were discharged under the
homecoming segment, over 10,000 beneficiaries in deprived communities across
the country have been beneficiaries.
“Currently, more than 500,000 persons have
subscribed to Instant Schools through broadband on issues ranging from IT
management, sales and customer service and then health and other social issues.
Vodafone offers mobile education solutions which combines the power of Vodafone
technology with the knowhow and support of local entities and the Vodafone
Ghana Foundation Scholarship Scheme, which aims at improving female engagement
in Science and Technology, is on course because over 300 female scholars have
benefitted.”
She said, “Vodafone has expanded its service
portfolio and overhauled its prices to meet customer demand while injecting
capital to improve the network capabilities and customer experience. Going into
the future, Vodafone has positioned itself as a potentially profitable and
sustainable business.”
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