By John V Sserwaniko
Donald Nyakairu, a seasoned corporate manager, is back in the telecom world this time as the MD in administrative capacity for the sinking Vodafone Uganda. But the top corporate lawyer, working with a top city law firm where he is a partner, is already being worn down by a huge debt burden his predecessors drove the company into. As per now the company, that can still get an investor (and Nyakairu hopes it will pretty soon) very easily because its operational license is still very valid, needs prayers for a divine intervention. This claim was validated by reliable sources at UCC insisting that Vodafone license is still on for some years to come. Its creditors include Nedbank of Europe and government of Uganda agencies like URA, NSSF etc and between them is a debt of Shs82bn against an asset company base of Shs55bn. The company’s other trouble relates to high monthly expenditure which now stands at Shs2.6bn and this has persisted even after reducing the workforce from 150 employees of pre-administration era to the current mere 50. As we reported in February (story was titled VODAFONE GOES UNDER RECEIVERSHIP AS AIRTEL CASHES IN ON DATA DEALS), the Kamwokya-based Vodafone was early this year put under receivership after its funders developed cold feet about its profitability and closed taps. But also the very stiff competition in the telecom industry can’t be discounted as one of the major causes of the current cash squeeze and chaos at Vodafone. Vodafone, that had positioned itself as a strong player in the area of offering data services, got troubled late last year when many of it’s workers either quit voluntarily or were forced out as a result of the rightsizing that was being undertaken. The telecom eventually failed to even offer internet services prompting many of its VIP/celebrity customers like Radio personalities Ahamed Bogere Masembe & Joel Isabirye to turn to social media to vent out their anger. The promoters tried to bring in Mark Shoebridge who too stayed for just weeks and fled on seeing how bottomless the corporate pit in which Vodafone had sunk was. Shoebridge’s dirty corporate history, whereby he was badly indicted in the Parliamentary report on UTL, immediately returned to haunt him. After Mark departure, CTO Derrick Sebale ran the show for a short time and when he proved inadequate for the task at hand, Donald Nyakairu was identified as the man easily available for the job. URSB boss Twebaze Bemanya, who is also the administrator charged with such ailing companies under receivership, has since acquiesced to the appointment of Donald Nyakairu to serve as the administrator for Vodafone. This won’t easily inspire confidence in creditors and other stakeholders given Nyakairu’s reputation as one of the top executives under whose watch UTL almost went to the grave. He was indicted in the report of Parliament along with Mark Shoe bridge, David Nambale, BOD chairman Stephen Kaboyo and others.
DONALD CONFIRMS;
We spoke to Mr Donald Nyakairu who confirmed as follows: “Yes its true I was approached by the Directors to come in and serve as a professional administrator because the company is in provisional administration.” He admitted the company is on some very difficult financial position but not one that can’t be reversed. Sounding very optimistic Nyakairu said; “My assignment is to stabilize the company and keep it as a going concern to be able to pay its creditors which I’m sure we are going to achieve in the coming months.” He disclosed that the company’s debt liability currently stands at USD82m of which USD6m is the claim for local creditors. The rest is for banks and international institutions that had advanced capital to Vodafone. Asked what Vodafone was investing in to have incurred so much debt in such a short time it operated in the Ugandan market, Nyakairu said they had invested in things like massive advertising, equipment acquisition and installation. For comments, call/text/WhatsApp us on 0703164755!
