Vodafone holds first Stakeholders Forum

Vodafone says it is keen and eager to communicate its thoughts and vision to Ghanaians, to see how best it can positively impact on the Ghanaian market, Mr. Paul Ryan, External Affairs Director of Vodafone Ghana has said.

The forum, aimed at facilitating discussions among stakeholders' in the areas of our compliance with EMF, supply engagement procedure, health & safety policies, and the quest to be an employer of choice.

Addressing the first stakeholder forum in Accra, Mr. Ryan said after nearly a year of doing business with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), industry regulators, investors, the academia and entrepreneurs, telecommunication industry regulators and environmental organisations, it was time to rethink and reframe their work, and strategise on the way forward.

Mr. Ryan noted that engaging with stakeholders was an important part of developing their Corporate Responsibility plan, indicating, “we believe that the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders will help a great deal in achieving a better corporate responsibility plan, which will be implementable and easily adaptable.”

He said Vodafone considers stakeholders as people who can affect our business, or who are affected by it, and this group includes employees, suppliers, NGOs, government agencies, regulators and the communities within which we operate.

Mr. Kobina Quansah, Board Chairman of Vodafone Ghana, was pleased with the turn of events, stressing that a stakeholders' forum was key to making a meaningful strike forward.

“Our expectation at the end of this workshop is that we will succeed in ensuring that people's understanding of the activities of Vodafone Ghana is greatly increased, and that we have created opportunities for people to provide relevant information in the focus areas of our discussion, and to the development of the telecommunication business in Ghana.

He noted that Vodafone had engaged individual stakeholders in meetings, but noted that such meetings were key to opening certain knotty points.

“We in Vodafone are acutely aware of our pre-eminent position as one of the leading telecommunications service providers both locally and internationally.

This is a position we have attained through various strategies and initiatives, including establishing continuous interactive relationships with all our key stakeholders, and we will not relent till we achieve this major objective.”