He went on to say that in the New Year 2019, together with his team they have designed expansion programmes that would see massive improvement in telephone land lines and in the internet to home service. He added that they also have a package to expand network to rural areas.
“Together with our vendor technology partners, we have put together packages to address the issue of fiber to the homes, fiber to the businesses, fiber to the universities and schools, fiber to the hospitals, fiber to MDAs among many others. We have a plan to inter-connect all the commercial banks with the Bank of Sierra Leone, so that for instance, you could use your Sierra Leone Commercial Bank ATM card at a Rokel Commercial Bank ATM machine,” Mr. Senesie Kallon informed AYV.
According to him, prior to the Christmas festive season, they Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) called a meeting on this.
“We are big stakeholders in that arrangement to connect all commercial banks with the BSL; where they would have an inter-bank payment system,” the SIERRATEL MD said. He added that currently, “we are connecting EDSA to the provinces to enable people pay their EDSA bills via payment system through our network.”
He mentioned that in the same vein institutions like National Revenue Authority (NRA), National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) among several others is gradually being connected via fiber optic to their counterparts and other institutions in prothe regions.
He maintained that though it had not been smooth sailing throughout 2018, the company managed to stay afloat and satisfy their numerous customers and are now prepared to give more to their customers this year in a range of areas, new services, promotions and customer care, all in an effort to restore SIERRATEL to its rightful place as the only indigenous telecommunications service provider in Sierra Leone.
He went on to state that as far and he and his team at SIERRATEL is concerned they are deftly following the footsteps of President Julius Maada Bio whose objective is to minimize corruption in all sectors including the telecommunications industry to reflect positively in the socio-economic lives of the people of Sierra Leone.
He added that he has been at the SIERRATEL fort now for a little over four months and that one of the challenges he met is a small network that is incapable of handling large number of consumers. He lamented that he inherited a very large workforce; some among them lacking experience and qualification but that he has successfully right-sized the company to ensure that the right people are put in the right place for effective outcome and little wastage of public funds as possible.
He stated that he is now working together with his team and Board to introduce living wages for qualified and experienced Sierra Leoneans that are qualified technicians, engineers and administrative managers to replace the vendor and contract syndrome which benefits mostly foreigners.
