By Foday Moriba Conteh
One of the leading telecommunications companies in the country, Orange Sierra Leone, on Thursday 17th December, 2020 held its Final Media Update for 2020 with media practitioners on the company’s achievements over the years. The event took place at their Head Quarters on Hill Station in Freetown.
In her statement, Head of Public Relations of Orange Sierra Leone, Annie Katta, said that the GSM company predicted that 80% of the 800 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will have a mobile device by 2020, two times more than today. A major reason for this trend, it was said, is the growing popularity of OTT services and mobile banking.
She noted that Orange is one of the leading telecommunications operators in the world with presence in 29 countries, with a revenue base of 21 billion euros and 154,000 employees worldwide and more than 20, 000 employees in 22 countries in Africa. It was noted that in Africa, one out of 10 people is an Orange customer.
Annie Katta added that Orange acquired the Airtel operations in Sierra Leone in July 2016. The company is owned at par by SONATEL Group, a listed company based in Senegal and by Atlas Countries Support (ACS) (a 100%-owned subsidiary of the French company Orange), adding that the Company in Sierra Leone is operated by 191 permanent and 144 Temporary staff. There are 8 Directors in Executive Committee, in addition to 2 non-executive committee directors.
Underscoring the company’s key milestone, Annie Katta said in 2016 Orange bought Airtel and in 2017 Orange Rebranded from Airtel, in 2018 the company launched a Company Project ‘Sunrise 2021’, in 2019 they launched the Digital Revolution and Di Real 4G, and in 2020 the company launched Orange Energy & Lajor (Soft loan) with Orange Money and Oversea Money.
Highlighting the company’s Covid-19 Response & Support, Head of CSR Orange-SL, Desmond Spaine, said that they distributed Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) at Regional Level via stakeholders (City and District Councils inclusive of MPs in Const. 112 & 128) – Hand wash machines, Veronica Buckets, Soap, Hand Sanitizers, adding that they also provided e-Educational Portals to MBSSE/MTHE – Zero Rated e-Learning Links for Pupils & Students, Offering 3 months of Top Up & Data Bundle for the Content developers (Teachers).
Desmond Spaine added that the company collaborated with the CDC, WHO, MOHS, MIC, UNICEF in the dissemination of COVID-19 information and also Zero Rated their Links as well as donated Android phones to EOC for security personnel to track e-Pass along the checkpoints.
He further revealed that Orange donated One Billion Cash to the National COVID Emergency Response Centre.
Underscoring other CSR activities of the company, Desmond Spaine, said they adopted 50 (6mthns – 18yrs) Ebola Orphans (Kids) nationwide in the three SOS Villages (North/South/Freetown).
He added that they also provided Ramadan Iftar donations to mosques, the underprivileged, Disables & Homeless people around the country further disclosing how they also partnered with Thinking Pink Breast Cancer Foundation on an Awareness and Fundraising Half Marathon yearly.
Desmond Spaine revealed that they also launched FQE super coders in 10 schools nationwide, adding that they also initiated the Women Digital School in partnership with NAYCOM and the Orange Social Venture Price, which created a platform for young entrepreneurs to showcase their talents, both on national and international platforms.
Head of Planning & Engineering Department Orange-SL, Daniel Fornah commenting on the company’s modernization of RAN Active equipment said in 2017, 238 sites were modernized, in 2018, 5 sites were modernized, In 2019, 3 sites were modernized and in 2020, 6 sites were modernized.
He further noted that Orange SL launched a new Data Centre and changed all core equipment of which a new switch to handle voice traffic was deployed, a new packet core for the internet traffic was deployed with a new intelligence network platform for prepaid billing management.
He said they also had 4G deployment, of which in 2019 Orange introduced 4G technology with 85 sites and in 2020, 115 additional 4G sites were also deployed.
Daniel Fornah, maintained that 925 new localities were connected and thousands of Sierra Leoneans accessing data and voice services for the first time, and that transition network expansion and modernization ongoing, furthering that, 210 hops have been modernized and upgraded and Fiber is extended to about 100km within Freetown to improve transmission.
