Workers lay fibre optic cables along Nkrumah Road in Mombasa. KDN has shed 51 jobs to cut costs in the increasingly competitive telecoms market that has seen the company slide into losses. File
Telecoms infrastructure firm Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has shed 51 jobs to cut costs in the increasingly competitive telecoms market that has seen the company slide into losses.
On Wednesday, the firm said it had sent home 40 employees and was planning to lay off 11 more in coming days after a review of its operations.
Its parent company, Altech of South Africa, which owns 60.8 per cent stake, said in its 2011 financial report that its Kenyan subsidiary was struggling in the face of competition from firms like Jamii Telecoms, AccessKenya and Telkom Kenya — which prompted changes in its executive suite late last year.
“The objective of the reduction is to reduce the company’s cost base in light of the current demanding market conditions,” said Shahab Meshki, the chief executive of KDN in a statement. KDN reported a drop in revenue from Sh3.2 billion to Sh2.1 billion for the six months ended August 31, while operating profit dropped from Sh657.2 million a year ago to Sh12.6 million.
Atul Chaturvedi, the chief commercial officer of KDN says the company has in the past year dropped into losses on high cost and stiff competition.
KDN, which owns over 3,000km of fibre optic network across the country, leases to firms such as MTN Business, Safaricom, Airtel, Equity and Barclays Bank.
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