Source : Daily Guide/Ghana | Wed 04th August, 2010
According to the company, three newspapers, The Daily Democrat, The Enquirer and The Daily Searchlight published separate stories that were influenced by one Riffikin who claims to be a Vodafone distributor.
It said the three stories alleged that Riffikin, the self-acclaimed distributor had taken Vodafone to court over a breach of contract. The publications also claimed that the distributors were dissatisfied with the company and had vacated their posts.
A release issued by Vodafone stated that “the stories published by The Daily Democrat and The Searchlight, in particular, slandered Vodafone Ghana’s Head of Sales and Distribution, Amon Jere that he had given the roles of distributorship to his cronies and in doing so had shown that the company is anti Ghanaian.”
In response to the publications, Vodafone said that “it has no contract or any direct business relationship with Riffikin who has been moving from one media house to another attacking Vodafone. “Vodafone has direct business dealings and distributorship contracts with only six distributors across the country and all of these distributors are Ghanaians.
Riffikin is not a Vodafone distributor and so cannot take Vodafone to court on a supposed distribution contract breach.”
It said all six distributors of Vodafone Ghana are happy with the operations of the company, stating that their contracts with Vodafone are firmly in place. “Our distributors are proud to be doing business with Vodafone and that explains why other individuals and businesses look out for that opportunity”.
The statement noted that “two years ago, Vodafone placed some announcements in a number of newspapers to receive proposals from businesses and individuals who could satisfy some minimum requirements to become distributors of the company. Riffikin was one of the people who applied to become a distributor of the company but he could not meet the minimum requirements and so was not short-listed.”
It continued that “after losing that opportunity, he started taking stocks dubiously from questionable sources and entered into another distributor’s territory to undercut prices and undermine sales. “This unethical business practice by Riffikin went on for so long until our distributors, together with the Sales and Distribution team, decided to blacklist him so that nobody in Vodafone’s distribution channel would transact business with him.
“Realising that he has been found out and would be out of business, Riffikin now moves from one media house to the other to attack Vodafone and the Head of Sales and Distribution with lies. A lot of media houses have refused to publish his falsehood after checking the facts with Vodafone.”
The company said it is very much surprised and disappointed that the three newspapers, whose editors are respected journalists, would publish such lies that represent the parochial interest of an individual without seeking Vodafone’s side of the story. “In the contracts and code of business ethics that we have with our distributors, the practice of undercutting of prices and crossing of territories to undermine the sales of others are serious contractual breaches and are severely frowned upon.
Our distributors pass on these same standards to their sub-dealers,” the statement said. “All the company’s distributors and their employees are Ghanaians and so it is amazing that the publications sought to create the impression that Vodafone is anti Ghanaian. “How can a company in which the Government of Ghana has 30 per cent shares and which has over 98 per cent of its employees as Ghanaians be described as anti Ghanaian?
We would also like to state that all six distributors of Vodafone Ghana are proud to be part of this remarkable global leading brand and happily in business,” the statement noted.
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