One of Africa's biggest business conglomerates, MA Group of Nigeria, on Saturday unveiled plans to invest in the Indian telecom sector.
"Initially, the group plans to focus its investments in the telecom sector in India and then move on to other sunrise sectors over a period of time," an official statement by MA Group said.
A hi-profile team from the company's subsidiary Globacom, Africa's fastest growing telecommunication network and Nigeria's second national operator with over six million subscribers, is in the country to identify manpower sourcing channels and fulfil its immediate recruitment requirements.
Apart from Globacom, which is Nigeria's fastest growing mobile service provider, the MA Group comprises Conoil and Equitorial Trust Bank.
"Each of these arms has a long-term investment plan for India, which is currently being spearheaded by Globacom," the statement said.
In a recent Global Survey on Manpower Sourcing, the MA Group has identified the Asian region and India in particular as a reservoir for skilled and technically competent manpower in the telecom and retail sector.
With its highly successful GloMobile brand, Globacom has decided to give India a global sourcing hub status for its entire global manpower needs out of Asia, the statement said.
"India is a nation waiting to arrive and is a natural choice for international players like us, for whom manpower competency is critical. We at MA Group and also Globacom have been extremely impressed with the expertise and resourcefulness that Indians recruited to work for the company have constantly exhibited," said MA Jameel, COO of Globacom.
{{/usCountry}}"India is a nation waiting to arrive and is a natural choice for international players like us, for whom manpower competency is critical. We at MA Group and also Globacom have been extremely impressed with the expertise and resourcefulness that Indians recruited to work for the company have constantly exhibited," said MA Jameel, COO of Globacom.
{{/usCountry}}"India has been chosen as it is today one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It is also a huge telecom market and therefore synergises with the core competency of Globacom," he added.
Globacom is the first network to offer international SMS connectivity to over 547 networks in 152 countries including India.
The African telecom major also plans to deploy Gateway infrastructure and switches in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
To fulfil its target to build the biggest and best network in Africa, Globacom has invested in a $280 million submarine cable network that connects Nigeria to Britain with a dedicated capacity to the US.