Sierra Leone’s leading mobile network company, Orange Sierra Leone reckons its achievements recorded in the telecoms industry since its operations in Sierra Leone.
The mobile communications company continues to make a foot print in Africa and Europe making it one of the leading telecommunications operator in the world. It has established a presence in 29 countries with revenue of 21 billion Euros with 54,000 employees worldwide and more than 20,000 employees in 22 countries in Africa.
In Africa, one of 10 people is a customer of Orange Sierra Leone. The mobile network company has been sponsoring development projects since it acquired Airtel operations in July, 2016.
The company is owned at par by SONATEL Group, a company based in Senegal and by Atlas countries supporting a 100% owned subsidiary of the French company. The company in Sierra Leone is operated by 191 permanent and 144 temporary staff and 8 directors in executive committee.
335 staff direct and over 30k indirect employees serve at Orange covering a population of 74 per cent.
The company has showcased its strength in diverse ways in strong global international brand, effective tax payment in Sierra Leone, largest network with 440 sites in Sierra Leone. Strong distribution network, product and services catalogue, prominent corporate social responsibility activity Orange Money leadership and women empowerment are also few areas Orange SL has demonstrated its strengths. Effective network has also been a priority concern for the telecoms industry with a marked modernisation of RAN active equipment.
Records seen by this press shows that 238 sites were modernised in 2017 and 5 were modernised in 2018, 3 in 2019 and 6 in 2020. Launching of a New Data Centre and change of all core equipment was also implemented by Orange Sierra Leone.
In achieving the data launching, a new switch to handle voice traffic was deployed, a new packet core for the internet, a new intelligent network for prepaid billing management.
It has been in operation years back, and has changed the face of the industry since its operations. In normal and difficult times, the company has always been in Sierra Leone to satisfy the communication needs of a great many Sierra Leoneans.
In its move to ensure that its customers remain connected, Orange Sierra Leone has ensured that 80% of the 800 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa own a mobile device. Contribution to the economies of African countries is also at the heart of Orange Sierra Leone.
Owing to such business ambition, Orange Sierra Leone remains the leader in mobile financial services in Africa. In Africa today, there are active mobile money accounts used by one in ten Africa that far exceeds customer adoption in South Asia, the second mobile money in terms of market share with 40 million money accounts.
Orange Sierra Leone is also working assiduously to ensure that Africa enjoys a comfortable internet penetration in the continent. Comparatively, Kenya has the highest internet penetration in Africa with 87.2% with Libya and Seychelles.
Mali and Nigeria has 61.6% and 61.2% of internet penetration respectively with Sierra Leone enjoying 18%.
Throughout its existence, Orange Sierra Leone has been pursuing strategies to improve its business situation in the country. One of the famous strategies is the Wanpot strategy which combines post-paid and prepaid features that gives customer a monthly bundle of voice calls both local and international.
It provides simple and efficient way to be in control of what you use, the customer in return is advanced equivalent monthly value of airtime which can be used for their communication needs.
Orange Money which is also a latest business strategy is also gaining grounds in Sierra Leone. Orange Money is composite in nature as it has several components such as using phone as wallet, Safe and secure, highest number of agents and easy access by everybody.
The Mobile Financial Services made it possible for several Sierra Leoneans to have access to banking facility over one million active accounts. Digital loan service Scheme is also another strategy pursued by Orange Sierra Leone.
The company’s international remittance programme helps to formalise the remittance sector. Orange Sierra Leone partners with several international non-governmental organisations for disbursement of funds to beneficiaries, and direct employment for personnel was created.
The company is also playing a lead role in the creation of new business opportunities.
In the energy sector, affordable solar package were provided by Orange Sierra Leone with a payment plan aligned with the purchasing power of households. The company also declared itself relevant to the health sector.
In partnership with the United States Agency for International Development, Orange Sierra Leone  furnished twenty-five health centres with equipment for production, storage and distribution of electricity as equipment for data connectivity, and equipment services for purifying and distributing water.
In maternal health services, support to raise awareness on healthy behaviours in respect of maternal mortality and optimise maternal care in communities.
Supporting youth and entrepreneurship, under the Orange Digital Centre, from training to start-up support acceleratic investment was also pursued by the company.
Orange Sierra Leone has also played a lead role in public sensitisation through SMS text messages.
The company has also contributed tremendously to the campaign against the virus since it broke out in Sierra Leone in 31st March this year.
It provided personal protective gears at regional level via stakeholders city and councils including members of parliament in constituencies 112 and 128.
As Corona Virus raged on, education portals were created where students can embark on e-learning. Zero-rated links were made available offering three months top-up bundle for the content developers.
Provision of food items for quarantined homes such as rice, cooking oil, maggie and onions was also undertaken by Orange Sierra Leone to mitigate the effect of Covid-19 on vulnerable populations.
The company also created and sustained direct and cordial relationship with Centre for Disease Control, World Health Organisation, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Ministry of Information and Communication.
In a bid to ease communication among workers at National Covid-19 Response Centre, android phones were made available for security personnel to track down the checkpoints.
Top-Up and 5GB to all front-line staff at the 3 treatment centres inclusive of all NACOVERC staff was also provided by Orange Sierra Leone.
Financial donations were also made to the campaign against Covid-19 in Sierra Leone.
Few months ago, Orange Sierra Leone made a cash donation of Le1 Billion to the Ministry of Information and Communication to intensify its communication in the campaign period.
Other interventions made by the company are seen in the adoption of Ebola orphans nationwide in the three SOS villages.
Provision of Ramadan Iftar donations to mosques and underprivileged, disabled and homeless people around the country was also a priority for the company.
Orange Sierra Leone also embarked on a fund raising campaign for the Thinking Pink Breast Cancer Foundation.
Free Quality Education super coders were also launched in 10 schools and 3 ECD schools under construction in Kambia, Pujehun and Moyamba under FQE support.
Support to maternal mortality in partnership with ICAI, and a digital school for women was also launched. Under the Social Venture Price, a platform was young entrepreneurs to showcase their talents both on national and international platforms was also created by the company.
Support was also provided to police call centre and Police Wives Association.
By virtue of the strides Orange Sierra Leone has been pursuing over the years, it is clear that the company is here to stay and will stay for good.