BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKNOV 13, 2016

Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, the local arm of the Chinese-owned Information Communication Technology firm with a presence in 170 countries, has been cheating Nigeria and Nigerians since it opened in the country in 2005. Huawei provides 72.65% of the end-to-end telecommunication services in Nigeria, leaving other vendors like Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE with less than 30% of the services.


Just as Huawei's competitors are gasping, so is Nigeria, whose laws are treated with total indifference by the Chinese company. Sources disclosed that company regularly evades tax, repatriates capital and abuses expatriate quota among other illegalities. Sources added that the company also muzzles complaints from staff.

SaharaReporters learnt that in the last 18 months, Huawei, with generous assistance from the Human Resources Director, Dorothy Johnson, has freely trampled on the workplace quota approved by the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS), which stipulates one expatriate to four Nigerians. This translates to 75% Nigerians and 25% foreigners.

As at November 1 2016, Huawei had a 3117-strong workforce. Of this number, said company sources, only 675 have full-time employment contracts. The rest, Nigerians and non-Nigerians, are outsourced. Of the 675 staff, 354 are Nigerians, while 321 are foreigners, implying a distribution of 52.44% to 47.56%.

SaharaReporters also learnt that many of the foreigners have stayed way beyond the period they were legally permitted. They were also said to have rejected Nigerian understudies as required by the law. A source told this medium that the Nigerian quota is fraudulently swelled through the inclusion of citizens of ECOWAS member states, who require no work permit, and other non-ECOWAS nationals with fraudulently obtained work permits.

"How a multinational company could get away with this in a country where there is an anti-corruption war is a mystery," said the source. Full-time staff contracts, sources also said, are renewable yearly, while leased workers face monthly contract renewal.

Huawei, SaharaReporters learnt, does not do this at its Republic of Benin office, where local staff have full-time contracts like their Chinese counterparts as stipulated by the country's law.

Sources added that Huawei favours rotational and periodic recruitments. After every three months had explained a source, the company moves almost 80% of newly recruited staff to the outsourced platform, with the excuse that the staff failed in their probation period, thus giving an impression of obeying the regulations.

The company's fraudulent practice was, on June 14, 2014, brought to the attention of the government, when one Mr. Jude Ifeanyi, a formerly leased staff of Huawei, submitted to the House of Representatives Committee a petition against the activities of the company. Earlier, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, then a member of the House, had presented a brief to the House on the same issue on March 18, 2014. In his petition, Mr. Ifeanyi narrated how he wrote to the former Minister of Interior about the quota abuse in Huawei and the next day, his Chinese managers brought the petition to the office and bragged about having the Nigerian political elite under their thumb. A source told SaharaReporters Huawei employs children and wards of political elite as a strategy for avoiding official scrutiny and possible censure.

According to the source, the Huawei staff with number 364033 is the son of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, while that with number 84369 is an in-law to Mr.Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture. One major gain of Ifeanyi’s petition, explained a source, was that after its presentation, Huawei started granting maternity leave to its outsourced female staff.

"Before then, once you were pregnant and a leased staff, you would be released," said a female staff.

Two weeks ago, Huawei stung its Nigerian employees by laying off 65% of them and replacing them with foreigners. The company had notified its Nigerian workers ago that it was moving most of its operations to its Global Service Centre (GSC) in India. The GSC was launched by Huawei on 25 August 2016, after complaints by the Indian government that Huawei has no visible infrastructure in India.

The development, explained industry watchers, means Huawei has transferred its MTN, Etisalat and Airtel Network Operation Centre (NOC), Radio Network Planning (RNP), Base Station Subsystem Management (BSS), Radio Access Network Management (RAN) and the Quality of Service (QoS) departments in Nigeria to India GSC.

The staff of the company wondered why it was Nigerians that got affected by this shift instead of foreigners.

"We think that since they are taking these jobs to foreigners in India, they should release their foreign staff here and not Nigerians because this job theft is from Nigeria. This transfer is not because of manpower paucity on the part of the Nigerians," said a staff.

The job loss is not about to end. An insider disclosed that last week, a Chinese manager in Lagos told local staff to look elsewhere for jobs in January.

Staff told SaharaReporters that the Human Resources Director, on resumption early last year, advised the management to discontinue giving welfare packages to staff.

"The Chinese Whisperer", as she is derisively referred to, convinced the management to stop giving rice and beverages to staff as year-end gifts. She was also said to have introduced and re-negotiated a worse health plan for staff.

Huawei, according to staff, pays the poorest wages in the Nigerian telecoms industry. The average salary of an outsourced staff in Huawei is N180, 000 yearly. Nokia, they claimed, pays N450, 000.

The Human Resources Director also persuaded the management to stop engaging National Youth Service Corps members, with exception of those related to members of the political elite.

Sources also disclosed that after more than a decade of operations in Nigeria, Huawei has no physical asset in the country. This is said to be in conformity with their operations except in countries where the government forces the company to act otherwise. During the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Huawei opened a training centre with a temporary location in Abuja. Huawei promised to build a permanent facility for the centre after a while but has not done so.

http://saharareporters.com/2016/11/13/how-chinese-owned-huawei-mistreats-its-staff-and-nigerian-state

I totally disagree, especially with the part of the NYSC Corpers. Have you read this article?

http://fote.org.ng/2016/11/nysc-member-refurbishment-ict-centre/

MisterKings:
I totally disagree, especially with the part of the NYSC Corpers. Have you read this article?

http://fote.org.ng/2016/11/nysc-member-refurbishment-ict-centre/

Disagree with what bro?

Do you work in Ericsson or Huawei?

This is not just a write-up...it's what's going on

Prof. Lalasticlala, pls Huawei is also shipping our jobs to India.

h

na we do ourselves

Whoarewe.

A lot is wrong with this country, when a foreign company interest is above a citizens interest then you know we dont have a government of the people but a government of the elites.

I love my country (dats an irony)

hi

Only when the common man start realising that praise singing our corrupt political elite is doing more harm to the country and its people and decisively stand against them can we begin to fashion out a way forward. I cant imagine, an erring company bragging about having the nigerian political class in their pockets, meanwhile in china, the moment ur papers expire, u become a fugitive, here foreigners roam free without adequate papers and when the notic of relevant authority is drawn, the nigerian calling their attention is persecuted.



Daily, i am beggining to get convinced that it really is a zoo.

.

As far as say na buhari be president we can only watch and pray.

In as much as these Chinese, Lebanese, Indians, Americans etc are really helping out with the unemployment situation in our country, some of them can be unbearably, intolerably, undoubtedly, indisputably, sarcastically, undeniably,......loading

Sometimes I don't blame just them, you need to see Nigerians in the senior Huawei positions doing same to their subordinates

All this newz just d bore me...all dz chinese pple wey no get strength...i just d laugh.

While someone somewhere is more concerned about passing a bill to stop tribal marks. Useless lawmakers.

I can't work for any Chinese or Indian company.


My only annoyance is that nothing will still happen to them after this news. We need to stone our lawmakers.

so wats the NLC & minister of Labour doing about it?

Bros if our govt. cant do any thing abt it; lets leave the foreigners alone;
its our leaders that have sold us to the foreigners (chinese; lebanese;indians; south africans even ghanians etc)

Ehen? I no wan talk much but their days are numbered. Na only here I respect bubu. They've breached contract and actions are being taken......trust me. The Nigerian Government as I speak has invited EFCC and other commissions to investigate the matter......















if u just believed that shit Ur on Ur own. Lie wey dey smell like eegbow.

Mopolchi:
As far as say na buhari be president we can only watch and pray.

you need lense, abi you no see d case was brought to the d ear of the goverment on june 14 2014.
Read b4 commenting,buhari is not d cause of all nigeria and your promblem

SMH

This is a serious issue n some just came to book space, SMH

Haba!!, as we old reach for Naija , Chinko tun gbawa

I remember 99, I was 9years then. As a kid then,i will sing "welcome to Nigeria 99" world cup song with this happiness and wonderful imaginations in my mind. I also enjoy "That's peak papilo" advert that Nigeria was everything the dream i want. Nigeria was like a beautiful Saturday morning,a delicious pot of Jollof rice. I still miss then and wish for those feelings then.

What are we now? what happened to us?

There was a country for sure.

we Nigerians are collaborating with this foreign employers to.kill their fellow Nigerians when the Elite children have been offered employment, so who will fight for the poor masses

We are in a lawless Country, so I'm not surprised reading this...

What do you expect..when our leaders have sworn to be corrupt till thy kingdom come.What do you expect..when our leaders have sworn to be corrupt till thy kingdom come.What do you expect..when our leaders have sworn to be corrupt till thy kingdom come.

Hehe
Na government sons and daughters dey bring the complaint


I tell you


No connection no job for you




To my beautiful nls with connections. I will finish my service next year, be a brothers keeper.

EdaKun hellllep me. If I've offended you, don't be annoyed. Just here to catch fun.

Like someone succinctly puts it above, 'na we do ourselves'.
The laws of the country are held in contempt by its citizens and leaders, and we shouldn't be surprised much by foreigners exploiting the situation to their benefit.
The culprits here are primarily the custodians and enforcers of our laws who have failed in their responsibility and the elite class who continue to connive with foreigners to rip the country off...because they can.

This is preposterous