When His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio who on his election in April 2018 promised to wage war against corruption, leakages and indiscipline in the public sector brought in international telecommunications guru, Foday Sankoh, to resuscitate it back to life, the Sierra Leone Telecommunications Company Limited, more popularly known as SIERRATEL, was like an emaciated corona virus patient in intensive care that was short of breathe and vital body fluids was nearing its last breathe.

To put the appointment of the economic minded Foday Sankoh’s as Managing Director of SIERRATEL by President Bio in proper context, the company before he became its leader was so cash strapped and inefficiently managed that it could not hold its own against the country’s other mobile telecommunications service providers.

The main reason for SIERRATEL’s inefficiency and inability to compete with the other mobile service providers was due to its high operation costs.
SIERRATEL was in dire straits. It was barely able to pay salaries of staff and managed to survive from hand to mouth on a monthly basis. It could not survive any longer, besieged with internal threats and sabotage.

When he took over in June 2019, after a forensic inspection of the company’s operation costs, Foday Sankoh noticed that there was a huge spike in fuel, cleaning and security costs for the months of August, September, October 2019, averaging Le 1 billion per month.

He took immediate steps to drastically reduce these leakages which were observably internal collusions by finance officers and vote controllers.

The outcome of these actions were reduction in fuel, security and cleaning costs by a whopping Le 600 million per month or Le7.2 Billion per year.

A visionary, SIERRATEL under the leadership of the Managing Director promises of a very successful private service provider who has outlined 5 top priorities.

To become a big money earner, SIERRATEL needs to invest in the following infrastructures:

(1) 4G/LTE data Network
(2) Decommission the CDMA Network and commissioning a 2G GSM Network for voice
(3) Increase the number of exchanges to provide Fixed Line Telephony services to new areas (Voice and Data), and
(4) Increase fiber connections to Corporations and SMEs

Topmost is on innovation with compelling merits for SIERATEL as a national asset based on a uniquely designed business development model called BUT – Borrow-Upgrade-Transfer. For the company’s transformation, modernization and expansion into nationwide network that will generate tremendous income for the government and the people of Sierra Leone for years to come built on Ethiopia’s successfully operating EthioTel.

This business model includes expansion of the 4G/LTE Network infrastructure by implementing Phase 2 and 3 to service new areas and to ease the current congestion particularly in Freetown; expansion of the Outside Plant Network in the various exchange areas such as Kenema, Bo, Jui and Aberdeen; enhance the functionalities of the billing platform to cater for value added services; expansion of fiber to offices and homes and cost efficiency improvement and more efficient use of CAPEX (Prudent Financial Discipline).

SIERRATEL’s vision is to position itself as a one-stop shop for the provision of converged communications services for Sierra Leone’s socio-economic development.

Standing firmly on its core corporate values of integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, innovation and excellence, SIERRATEL’s mission under Foday Sankoh’s leadership is to build a better life for all through available, affordable and sustainable efficient telecommunication and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Sierra Leone Telecommunications Company Limited (SIERRATEL) is a limited liability company that is wholly owned by the Government of Sierra Leone. The company’s primary objective is to provide telecommunications services throughout the country at an affordable price.