In the heat of the debate over Government’s decision to offload 70 percent shares in Ghana Telecom to Vodafone some officials of the company say a ratification of the deal is their only hope. Mr Emmanuel Adusei-Essel, Western Regional Manager of Ghana Telecom (GT) is one of such officials. He said GT needs massive capital injections to compete effectively in the rapidly transforming telecommunication industry. “Time is not on our side and our competitors would not wait for us in their quest to win more customers,” he said. Mr Adusei-Essel was speaking to the media after a peaceful demonstration by the workers after a meeting with management on the need for GT to be privatized in Takoradi. The workers carried placards some of which read: “We want Vodafone deal-no retreat no surrender,” “GT needs international exposure”, “Support Vodafone deal for total growth,” “Stop politicising the sale of GT,” “Vodafone our only hope,” and “Vodafone will rescue GT from collapse”. They were in their branded GT Lacoste T-shirts, their over-all but wore no red head or arm bands. The workers used gong-gong, sang and danced with occasional shouts of “Vodafone you are welcome”, “Vodafone we need you”, “Arise Vodafone, we never say die”. Mr Adusei-Essel said the workers support the privatisation of GT adding that “the deal is something that is going to grow the company in the face of competition”. “No GT staff has spoken against the privatisation, we are really in support of it,” he said. He pointed out that the workers felt sale of some of the company’s shares would “save” the company from collapsing. Mr Adusei-Essel said there was the need for GT to move forward and compete with other companies which were progressing in the sector. “Vodafone would help us compete effectively with our competitors and we are ready for that,” he said. He said GT had 4,200 staff who had dependents and if the company was allowed to collapse, more than 4,200 people would be affected. Mrs Victoria Osafo, Western Regional Corporate Services Manager of GT, stressed that the workers support the privatisation of GT. “Our workers believe that any capital inflow would transform the dwindling fortunes of GT and make it number one,” she stressed. Mrs Osafo said: “We fully support the privatisation deal and Government this time”. Source: GNA