“Zain-SL has again taken the lead to promote academic institutions with a special passion for the welfare of students to achieve quality education and also build networks and friendship which is another excitement to loyalists of the Zain- brand.”
These were the exact words of Ted Sauti Phiri, the Managing Director of Zain Sierra Leone during the official launching of the Zain Africa challenge for universities in Africa at their Wilberforce Headquaters in Freetown.
He also said that all is now set for ordinary Sierra Leoneans particularly Zain subscribers to participate in the long awaited Zain African Challenge (ZAC) inter university quiz competition featuring Njala University and the University of Sierra Leone which is expected to commence on Saturday March 28, 2009 on the SLBS TV.
Ted intimated that Zain African Challenge quiz competition will be taking place among thirty two (32) universities from the eight English speaking countries namely Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia where Zain operates in Africa.
The (32) thirty two universities will compete for the prestigious Zain’s Scholar’s trophy with ($50,000) fifty thousand United States Dollars institutional grants to the university and each participant in the winning team will bag ($5,000) five thousand dollars.
Dan Kargbo Head of Marketing at Zain Sierra Leone expressed the company’s commitment and determination to support educational institutions with relevant information noting that it is part of their responsibility to support and promote quality education. He added that Zain is the leading mobile phone company in Sierra Leone that provides quality and reliable services to its subscribers.
June Rose Johnson, Media Relations Officer of Zain properly explained about the Zain Africa Challenge and the procedures to participate in the quiz competition. She noted that Zain customers viewing the show on SLBS-TV stand the chance to win great prizes by sending answers to the questions asked via SMS to 600 short code.
She explained that the national qualifying tournament was held in January this year and Njala University and the University of Sierra Leone played the best seven series during the tournament with a slight margin to those teams that went on to represent Sierra Leone at the International festival in Kampala, Uganda.
She reiterated that the academic quiz will see Universities from Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone making a debut to challenge East Africa’s dominance in the competition. Since it was launched two years ago, Egerton University from Kenya has maintained a tight grip on the competition winning both editions.
Zain is the leading emerging market
player in the field of telecommunication aiming to become one of the top ten mobile operators in the world. Zain was established in 1983 in Kuwait as the regions first mobile operator. Since 2003 it has grown significantly becoming the 4th largest mobile network in the world in terms of geographic presence with a footprint in 22 countries.
Zain brand is wholly owned by mobile Telecommunication Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait stock exchange (stock ticker: Zain) the company has a market capitalization of over US $27.5 billion.