Areeba Stole My Billion-dollar Business
2006-10-17 09:47:45 | Viewed 1564 times
The Heritage, a Ghanaian newspaper reports that a Ghanaian named Samuel Opoku has accused Ghana's leading cellular network operator, Scancom Ghana Ltd (operators of Areeba Ghana), of cheating him of at least $1 billion being proceeds of a business idea he shared with the cellco. [Full report below]
areeba, the nation's leading mobile phone service provider, has been accused of stealing the business idea of a Ghanaian studying in Norway and using the plan to make at least one billion dollars from Ghanaian consumers.
Accordingly, the petitioner, Samuel Opoku, who is pursuing a Master of Philosophy degree course in Innovation Entrepreneurship at the University of Telemark, Norway, has petitioned President John Agyekum Kufuor to step in to secure some compensation for him.
"I'm a product of the Homecoming Summit; I flew in from Norway in response to the president's call that Ghanaians in the diaspora should come to help rebuild Ghana. I came to collaborate with a local company and this is what has befallen me. The local company-areeba- has stolen my idea to enrich itself.”
His idea, according to Samuel Opoku, was that mobile phone communication should be made in such a way that you could easily call areeba from another areeba line- if you did not use that cell phone or you did not have enough units on your phone. "That brought the space-to-space idea." But before the originator of the idea could have the opportunity to discuss shares or how to benefit, the service provider had quickly, unilaterally, and diabolically gone ahead, he avers. The whole project started in 2001; that is when Mr. Opoku says he conceived the idea. He then registered a company the next year with the view to delivering and nurturing his dream business into a vibrant venture. " I had worked out carefully the whole business plan and was confident to create some 200,000 jobs for the youth and other jobless people."
With his brief under his armpit and vision in his mind, he went to knock at the doors of the then Managing Director, Farouk, and Business Manager, Fouad, of the company, which was at the time called Spacefon. Initially, he had not intended it be a joint venture but a sole ownership business for himself; so he asked to be allocated 1,000 Spacefon lines.
" When I mentioned 1,000 lines they didn't understand; when I started explaining they couldn't even fathom what I was talking about till I took pains to school them on my vision, the obvious benefits to the nation and the huge financial potential it held," says Mr. Opoku.
Eventually, the big guns of Spacefon came round to understand, admire and accept the vision of the Ghanaian for implementation. Because Space to Space was not their baby and they could still not visualize it clearly the Spacefon executives asked Opoku to produce documentation on the proposal for them to build the foundation software.
" That is how come I handed in the documented proposal and truly they built the software-but behind my back." Asked how come he did not take part, he explained that Spacefon promised him they would call him back after studying the proposal. "If it is today or tomorrow that they will call me, I'm yet to know but they promised to work with me and share the benefits with me; that is why I gave the key."
As many Ghanaians would recall, Space to Space service provision-which is done everywhere on just small tables started in 2003. Currently, according to a recent publication in the state-owned Daily Graphic, as many as 200,000 people are directly earning a livelihood by sitting behind those small tables and thumbing the key pads of phones to connect customers. Indeed, such has become the popularity of the mobile to mobile service that areeba's competitors have all jumped onto the scene, offering very similar services and reaping millions a day.
areeba started as Spacefon; then it stepped up into a transitional name called Spacefon areeba before arriving at the recent name: areeba. In the process, managers and ownership have changed considerably, with MTN South Africa now owning majority shares. The New C.E.O. is Brett Goschen; Farouk has been transferred to Nigeria.
When The Heritage called the head office of areeba to seek reactions to Mr. Opoku's claim, Alex Abbew, Head of Public and Media Relations, said "our official position on the matter for now is no comment."
Meanwhile, Mr. Opoku is threatening to haul areeba before court, unless he gets some compensation. He says he had been trying to persuade the company to give him some compensation; but they always treated him with the contempt he did not deserve.
"Three months ago, I went looking for then MD Farouk; his secretary told me he had traveled abroad. While I was descending from his office, I met the man supposed to be abroad. I asked him why he had failed to answer my letters. He snapped back that he reserved the right to reply letters that he wanted to reply." Mr. Opoku said
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2007-07-23 13:01:45
"This is the more reason why people must be educated on patenting even the smallest idea they come up with. These thieves know how hungry people are and will always find ways to make money off them. I'm very sorry that Samuel is in this position and I hope that justice is done. The Lebs have been thieves for generations. We need to know their game and play it accordingly."
Selima from Accra,Ghana.