22 March 2023
MTN SA wants to bring in foreign electrical engineers for the maintenance of its telecom towers in a context of electricity shortage. The company wants to take advantage of the state of national disaster decreed February 2022 by the South African government.
“We need to bring people from Egypt and Nigeria, but the difficulty lies in the process of obtaining visas. As part of the national state of disaster, we will seek a special visa waiver to allow us to contribute skills to manage sites that are largely off-grid,” said Ralph Mupita, president and CEO of MTN Group.
MTN has estimated the cost of load shedding for its business in South Africa to be around R695 million in 2022, or around 3.4% of its earnings before interest, taxes, deductions and depreciation (EBITDA).