By Dosti Bakizo
It was a remarkable moment for management and staff of Africell (SL) Limited as news broke out that the company has been branded as the first and only International Standards Organization (ISO) in Sierra Leone. This greater success led to a grand celebration by the entire staff of the company who had worked relentlessly in ensuring that the company meets the ISO 9001 quality standard requirement.
This prestigious accreditation is a further validation of the company’s leadership in the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication industry in Sierra Leone and its commitment to operational excellence, meeting and exceeding the expectation of its loyal subscribers.
Africell has prided itself with the objective of providing the highest quality GSM services throughout Sierra Leone; and to achieve this goal, the company made the implementation of a quality management system a strategic priority, based on the quality standards prescribed by ISO 9001.
Earning the reputation as the most comprehensive body of standards on quality management system and practices is due to the extraordinary commitment of management and staff of the company.
Most subscribers interviewed are of the opinion that the latest international recognition gained by Africell will bring to force investors’ confidence, and as a result will send a clear message to the world that the country is ready and open for quality investment.
Joe Abass Bangura is the company’s Corporate Affairs Officer. He said the company has about 1.5m subscribers with less than 2% dropped calls, which has given a great confidence to subscribers using the network. “We did our level best to meet the quality standard system, which earn us a certificate from ISO,” he said. After putting all structures in place, the Corporate Affairs Manager said ISO brought in a team of Auditors to carry out a comprehensive auditing, which resulted to the company receiving a pass mark. “We want to change negative perceptions that we have not been meeting quality standards to our customers. We are very much happy to be certified by ISO, which spells out clearly that we have a system that meets their standards,” he said, and added that this send a very good message to the international market that Sierra Leone has a company that holds itself highly competitive to those in developed countries.
The ISO Certificate will last for three years with an annual audit carried out by the international entity. Africell is currently training a team of Auditors that will be conducting monthly auditing on the system.
