May 17, 2018 By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
The Corporate Affairs Director of Orange Telecom Sierra Leone, Barry Honnah, Wednesday, May 16 paid a courtesy visit to Concord Times Communications.
The visit of the Corporate Affairs Director was aimed at strengthening his company’s relationship with the media in the country and to also inform journalists that they should feel free to talk to management of the company whenever they have issues.
Honnah said he had worked at both Africa Minerals and London Mining as Manager Human Resources and Manager Human Resources and Community Relations respectively, and later moved to Airtel/Orange as Director of Human Resources and Rebranding.
He told Concord Times that he was desirous of establishing a strong relationship with the media in the country, and that the telecom giant would be doing big things with their corporate social responsibility and that the press would lot of work in that direction.
He said their corporate social responsibility would be skewed toward a digital revolution and focused more on education to complement the New Direction agenda of the new government, among others.
On his part, Editor of Concord Times Abu-Bakarr Sheriff welcomed the Orange delegation and stated that he was pleased about the courtesy visit.
He said the newspaper has a long standing relationship with Orange telecom spanning years and prior to the brand change of name from Airtel to Orange Sierra Leone.
He said Concord Times Communications has always been professional in their reportage and promised that the medium would continue along that path to reporting well sourced and balanced stories.
He called on Orange not to forget the media in their new corporate social responsibility direction.
It could be recalled that Orange Telecom on Wednesday, 18 October, 2017 officially launched its brand in Sierra Leone – taking over Airtel Sierra Leone.
During the launch at the Bintumani conference centre in Freetown, erstwhile Chief Executive Officer of Orange Sierra Leone, Sekou Drame, said the launch of the brand comes with a promise to meet the emerging needs of customers with innovative, affordable and relevant solutions that will empower consumers, giving them the freedom to do what they choose and provide them with the tools to meet life and daily challenges.
He further that they remained committed to taking the network and services deeper into the country, right up to the doorsteps of each and every Sierra Leonean, with the aim of bridging the digital divide within the country.
Drame also disclosed at the auspicious event that Orange Sierra Leone would embark on modernisation and expansion plan to enhance the reliability, coverage and quality of its network and voice and data services.
Since the acquisition, some US$33 million have been invested for that purpose, while the company constructed 30 new radio sites on air and over half of the entire mobile network upgraded.