By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of their efforts to make news dissemination accessible to Sierra Leoneans across the country within their comfort zones, Africell-Sierra Leone in partnership with the Africa Young Voices (AYV) Media Empire on Tuesday 6th July, 2021 launched the Africa Young Voices Media Empire (AYV) SMS News update during an event that was held at the Africa Young Voices Media Empire Headquarter on Wesley Street in Freetown.
In his address, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Africell-Sierra Leone, Joe Abass Bangura, disclosed that news dissemination has come a long way from the days when there were a dozen of newspapers, a single television station and short medium wave radio stations, adding that with the commencement of FM Radio broadcast in the early 90s such brought higher quality sound broadcasting given the relative affordability of equipment used of which he said even local communities in the country can now boast of having their own radio stations furthering that there has also been a similar proliferation and growth in the number of newspapers and TV stations in the country.
He added that the advent of mobile phones brought in even greater dynamics with majority of households now owning their own mobile phones which he said has made news accessibility even faster and on the spot and that people no longer need to wait to read the newspapers or watch the television or listen to the radio to access news furthering that rather news can now be delivered to them through their cell phones via the Africa Young Voices Media Empire (AYV) SMS News Update.
He said the service will give Africell subscribers the opportunity to get want they want, which includes the latest and the important breaking news ,direct to their cell phones as and when they happen, adding that Africell customers can subscribe for the service by sending an SMS START to the short code 298 at a cost of Le300 per day.
He pointed out that Africell Subscribers with or without smart phones, can access the service and that the service is on auto renewal once to subscribe but said subscribers also have the opportunity to unsubscribe from the service by sending STOP to 298 at any time they wish.
On his part, Managing Director of Africa Young Voices Media Empire, Ezekiel Duramany Lakkoh, described the launch as very important towards mitigating the issue about misinformation in the country.
He said the service will also give the opportunity for subscribers to have credible and factual news in all facet of life especially things that are very relevant for public consumption.
Duramany Lakkoh ended by calling on all to subscribe to the AYV SMS news update service in order to get credible and factual news.
The event was climaxed by the official launching of the Africa Young Voices Media Empire (AYV) SMS News Update by Phebean Swill, Managing Director of Africa Young Voices Media Empire Ezekiel Duramany Lakkoh and the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Africell-Sierra Leone, Joe Abass Bangura.
In another development, the Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority, Ibrahim Sannoh and his Deputy James Baggie Bio has on Tuesday July 6, 2021 held a round table discussion with the Chief Executive Officer and Management staff of Africell Sierra Leone, mapping out solutions for effective partnership on Road Safety.
Ibrahim Sannoh commended the Africell Management for their support over the years. “We cannot sit back and allow road crashes to continue to claim the lives of meaningful people in our beloved country when we have corporate institution like Africell SL that we can partner with. As the lead agency charged with the responsibility to coordinate development in the transport sector, we thought it fit to meet the Management of Africell SL as one of the leading Telecommunications companies to explore avenues for collaboration,” Ibrahim Sannoh said.
Highlighting some of the challenges faced by the Authority, he said Post Crash Response, Road Signs and Markings along highways pose serious challenge for road users and all of those need to be looked into and action taken.
The Executive Director furthered that SLRSA is working assiduously to revamp its toll Free line and to set up a Call Centre for members of the public to report all road safety related issues on a 24hour basis.
Speaking on behalf of the Management of Africell, the Chief Executive Officer, Shadi Al-Gerjawi, said Africell SL is ready and willing to give in support to anything that has to do with saving lives on our roads and by extension national development. “We will assist in setting up the call centre and also look at other possible areas for collaboration and partnership,” the Telecom Guru said.
The Deputy Executive Director of SLRSA, James Bio, expressed hope that this will see the emergence of a long lasting partnership between Africell SL and the SLRSA.
