# French Thales reorganize West Africa operations

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2023/07/french-thales-reorganize-west-africa-operations/
- Published: 2023-07-10T14:53:21+01:00
- Author: Ekene Lionel

French defence and aerospace giant Thales is reorganizing its West Africa operations,
Africa Intelligence has learned. The group is merging its Ivory Coast and Senegal
subsidiaries into a single entity, Thales West Africa, which will be headed by Jean-
Baptiste Bertrand. Bertrand is currently the managing director of Thales Ivory Coast.

The reorganization is part of Thales’s broader strategy to consolidate its operations
in Africa. The group has also recently merged its operations in Morocco and Tunisia
into a single entity, Thales North Africa.

Thales’s West Africa operations are focused on providing security and defence solutions
to governments and businesses in the region. The group has a strong presence in 
Ivory Coast, Senegal and Nigeria, where it has won a number of major contracts in
recent years.

The reorganization of Thales’s West Africa operations comes at a time when the group
is facing a number of challenges in the region. One of the biggest challenges is
the ongoing political instability in Mali, which has led to the cancellation of 
a number of Thales contracts.

Another challenge is the fraud and corruption trial of South Africa’s former president
Jacob Zuma and Thales. Thales is suspected of having paid Zuma bribes in relation
to an arms deal in the 1990s with its local branch, Thint.

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Thales has a number of other offices in West Africa, including in Abidjan, Dakar,
and Lagos.

Thales has closed its office in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The office was managed
by Yannick Lefebvre, who left the group in May to join Safran in Dubai as senior
sales director for the Middle East and Dubai.

The closure of the Abuja office is part of a broader reorganization of Thales’s 
West Africa operations. The company is merging its Ivory Coast and Senegal subsidiaries
into a single entity, Thales West Africa, which will be headed by Jean-Baptiste 
Bertrand. Bertrand is currently the managing director of Thales Ivory Coast.

The Abuja office was opened in 2008.

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Despite these challenges, Thales remains committed to its operations in West Africa.
The group believes that the region has a lot of potential for growth and that it
can play a key role in Thales’s global strategy.

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The reorganization of Thales’s West Africa operations is a sign of the company’s
commitment to the region. Thales believes that West Africa has a lot of potential
for growth and that it can play a key role in the company’s global strategy.

However, the closure of the Abuja office is also a sign of the challenges that Thales
is facing in Nigeria. The country’s economy is struggling and there is a lot of 
political instability. This has made it difficult for Thales to win contracts in
Nigeria.

Thales provides a wide range of products and services to governments and businesses
in West Africa, including security and defence solutions, telecommunications systems,
and transportation systems.

The reorganization of Thales’s West Africa operations is expected to be completed
by the end of 2023.

Nevertheless, on a positive note for the French arms maker, this 2023, Thales plans
to hire more than 12,000 new employees to support its strong growth trajectory in
its three core markets: Aerospace, Defence and Security, and Digital Identity and
Security. The Group will be hiring all over the world, and expects to take on 5,500
new employees in France, 1,050 in the United Kingdom, 600 in Australia, 550 in India
and 540 in the United States.

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