SLRSA & Orange-SL Discuss Areas of Strategic Partnership

By Foday Moriba Conteh

Ibrahim Sannoh, Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority on the 9th July 2021, held a strategic meeting with a team from Orange Sierra Leone at the SLRSA headquarters on Kissy Road. The meeting, which was held on the request of the SLRSA Executive Director, was geared towards mapping out areas of strategic partnership between the SLRSA and the Orange Mobile company.

David Mansaray, CEO of Orange Money expressed profound appreciation stating that the visit was a demonstration of Orange’s determination to collaborate with the SLRSA to address the challenges of Road Safety in the country.

SLRSA Executive Director, Ibrahim Sannoh, dilated on the increase in road traffic crashes both globally and locally further disclosing that in Sierra Leone, a total of 861 persons were killed through road traffic crashes in 2020.

He intimated that based on statistics for 2021 road traffic crashes are on the increase and therefore solicited the support of Orange to address some of the major challenges responsible for this ugly trend.

The Executive Director requested Orange to partner with the Authority in the areas of Road Safety Education, Post-Crash response and Road Safety Signals along major corridors/ trunk roads.

Speaking on behalf of Orange, the Chief Executive Officer for Orange Money, David Mansaray, welcomed the request for partnership from the Executive Director of SLRSA. He called for proposals from the SLRSA on key areas for possible intervention.

The Business Director of Orange, Edward Sesay pointed out that the proposal should clearly outline major areas including emergency toll free line and Post-Crash centres.

The MIS analyst of the SLRSA, Glen Cole, disclosed that SLRSA had been working with the telecommunications company with a toll free line, but said following the transition from Airtel to Orange the service is no longer available.

Earlier, the Acting Director of Human Resource/ Admin, Mariama Masuba, introduced the team from the SLRSA and thanked the team from Orange for giving their time and hoped for the commencement of the partnership soonest.