Vodafone holds safety seminar

Vodafone Ghana has held a one-day seminar on health, safety and ethical practices for 50 suppliers and agents of the company.

The seminar was the second of its kind in a year, held every six months to review the safety programme of the company.

“Vodafone considers health, safety and ethical practices as very crucial to good corporate governance in ensuring that we meet our corporate responsibility objectives. We have therefore not relented in our efforts since entering the Ghanaian market to ensure that our operations and those of our suppliers conform to best and responsible business practices.

“Vodafone considers that no practice is important enough to put at risk the health, life or livelihood of any of its employees, suppliers or more importantly the general public,” Bart Borchardt, Head of Supply Chain Management of Vodafone Ghana, disclosed at the opening.

Vodafone Ghana has within 12 months attained International Safety Rating Level 5, making it the only company in the country with such recognition. This feat was achieved due to the implementation of a number of initiatives during the year including fatality prevention, Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking in all Vodafone Vehicles, frequent safety audits, safety awareness sessions, employee-recognition schemes for compliance and adherence, and third party compliance.

Also, as part of the company’s Corporate Responsibility initiative, ethical disposal is high on the agenda in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency to prevent open disposal of oil, burning of electronic waste among others as they are likely to pollute the environment and water-table.

“Vodafone Ghana is immensely proud that the implementation and insistence of standards in Ghana has resulted in some of our local partners championing this to even greater heights. Two examples are Royal Systems and G&J Technologies, who have embedded these principles in their operations,” Bart Borchardt, said.

“We have bought into Health and Safety compliance not because it improves the health of our business. We have done so because we strongly believe it is the right thing to do as it makes us efficient, saves cost and protects the lives of our employees. It safeguards our client’s equipment, and above all we contribute our quota in protecting the environment,” Godfrey Asiedu, Managing Director of G&J Technical Services, noted.

Godfred Akyea-Darkwah, road-safety expert and CEO/Rector of Road Safety and Transportation Consultancy Limited, stated that “Vodafone’s continuous support of road safety programmes, including funding 2010’s baseline survey on the causes of road crashes in country, means safer roads for the nation, good contribution to Gross Domestic Product, and better investment opportunities.”

The highest standards and policies that Vodafone has insisted upon have not only changed dangerous practices within the telecommunications sector, but across other sectors in the country.