[all africa] President Ernest Bai Koroma Friday launched the national telecommunications company, Sierratel as part of his government's commitment to providing essential services to the people of Sierra Leone.
The company has been re-branded with the code division multiple access, CDMA technology installed by a Chinese telecommunications outfit Huawei technologies. A concession loan was obtained from the Chinese import and export bank.
The facility would enable digital encoding, radio frequency and quality voice system more than other wireless technologies.
While commissioning the facility the president said the reactivation of Sierratel was significant and part of his government's agenda to rebuilding state institutions.
He said Sierratel was completely out of operations but given the good relationship between Sierra Leone and China, the Huawei technology company swiftly intervened to address the problem.
"I am pleased to note that the CDMA technology will provide quality services to the people of Sierra Leone. It is essential to have a good national telecommunications system because we want to embark on E-government policy by connecting government ministries and departments to ease their activities."
Minister of information and communications Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo said when he was appointed minister of information he discovered that certain departments were actually in serious difficulties and that Sierratel was one of those dying institution.
He said the launch of Sierratel was a blessing because Sierra Leoneans would now have the opportunity to communicate using the latest technology.
Kargbo said the CDMA network was faster, efficient, and more reliable thus calling on Sierra Leoneans to make good use of the opportunity.
"Because of the quality of the network, the government of Sierra Leone through my ministry has contracted the Huawei technology to implement the integrated E-government and optical transmission backbone project that will serve the entire country which will take onboard E-health, education, custom, security and tax optical backbone."
He added that "after the ministry of mineral resources, my ministry came second in providing funds into the consolidated funds.
"This time, however, Sierratel is going to open to business and we will ensure that the institution performs in the interest of the people."
The company's managing director Alpha Sesay assured all that they would provide the best services as they have put strategies in place for the smooth running of the institution.
He said the company covers the entire Western area and some major towns in the provinces, adding that the internet and other facilities make the institution different from other telecommunications service providers.
Sierra Leone: Sierratel Back With New Hopes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment