Head of Media in Orange Sierra Leone Limited, Annie Wonnie Carter has told journalists during their quarterly update that the company has invested about 596 million dollars in modernizing and expanding its network infrastructure. She said Orange remains committed to providing the best telecoms services in Sierra Leone ensuring its customers get an “Unmatched “experience. “As a recap to our Network expansion investment, we acquired 247 sites from Airtel, we constructed 45 new sites in 2017 and 42 in 2018. In the beginning of 2019 we committed to construct additional 55 new sites. Today, we are proud to inform you that we have completed 34 out of the 55 sites committed in 2019, thereby connecting more than 1,170 new localities, with thousands of Sierra Leoneans now accessing data, voice and financial services for the first time. Orange is now a proud owner of 367 sites across the country, and we can comfortably boast of the widest network coverage in Sierra Leone covering about 74% of the country’s population.”
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The Head of Media said Orange is a globally recognized multi-service provider, and they have been in Sierra Leone for just three years, yet they have already stamped their innovative footprints in the country. Looking ahead, she averred that the buck doesn’t stop here for Orange SL, rather, progress made over the past three years has merely laid out the foundations for their wider ambitions which is to introduce and implement new technologies for businesses of all kinds across Sierra Leone. “Since the inception of Orange in Sierra Leone, the company has invested about $112 million dollars in the areas of Network modernization and expansion, Human Resources as well as corporate social responsibility. In respect of Human Resources, Orange has invested about $16 million dollars in the last two years. The company prides itself in capacity building by ensuring that its employees benefit from soft skills, technical and leadership trainings. The Company nurtures talent from on boarding, ensures retention and provides exposure opportunities with other Orange affiliates.” She reiterated that Orange being a multi service provider and a responsible corporate citizen places emphasis on corporate social investment. In the’ last two years she said the company has invested about $400,000 dollars mainly in the areas of women empowerment, health, education and the environment. Annie Wonnie Carter said Orange remains the first operator in Sierra Leone to contribute to the government Free Quality Education (FQE) Agenda by pledging the sum of $1.5m in material assistance over a period of five years beginning from 2019. The company launched three out of the five major projects under its FQE initiative as follows. “The Super Coder Academy to train 100 senior secondary school students in five years with 20 schools each year will be executed in December. Secondly, the provision of 10,000 hygiene packs for girls the ages of 12- 18 years over a period of five years with 20 schools to receive 2,000 packs per year. This one has started this October. Thirdly, the running of an inter-secondary schools quiz and debate competition every year for five years with the aim to provide one computer lab for the winning school every year, with 20 schools to participate every year, with one computer lab per year. This project will start next month. The remaining two will be launched in 2020.” She said Open Classrooms to provide 300 free certifying digital courses for 500 teachers in five years, and the distribution of 1,000 solar pack kits to 1,000 schools in 1,000 off-grid villages in five years with 200 solar packs distributed per year. Orange’s Annie said they also launched the first coding school in Sierra Leone in May in partnership with the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) with an estimated cost of about Le2.75 billion ($308,000). The coding school is scheduled to commence in December 2019 with an aim to train youths in coding and other software skills in readiness for the country’s digital transformation, to foster entrepreneurship, reduce unemployment and develop the country’s innovation ecosystem. “We continue to make use of our network asset and strength by being the first movers always in the introduction of interesting offers, products and services. Two weeks ago on the 25th September, we launched “CHACHA”. This is a non-binding and non-commitment daily subscription by dialing *808#. With the new cha-cha offer, customers can subscribe as many times as possible to make orange to orange calls. In addition to that, we have also expanded our Yo! offer to daily, weekly and monthly subscription. By dialing *888# subscribers can benefit from our daily, weekly or monthly offers. And our ultimate data revamp of 35% increase in data bundle for the same price, all of these gives so much more than less. She said they will be launching their Orange Social Venture Innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership this week.
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