ORANGE DONATES FOOD ITEMS TO HILL STATION MUSLIMS & OFFERS ‘JAMMAH SUNAKATIE’ TO HUNDREDS AT WATERLOO

By Feima Sesay

As part of their continuous support in order to extending love to the Muslims Sierra Leone during the month of Ramadan, Orange Mobile Company has donated food items to Inn-Muziki Mosque and Masjid-Nabawia respectively. The said donation was done at the respective mosques at Hill Station Freetown

The food items are said to worth millions of Leones.

The assorted food items that were donated to both mosques includes 15 bags of rice, 5 gallons of cooking oil,5 bags Onion, 5 bags milk, 5 bags sugar, 5 cartoon of tin tomatoes and 3 cartoons maggie.

 These mosques received the same sets of food item.

Donating the food items on behalf of the company, the Cooperate Social Responsibility Manager Kamal Abass said that this is not the first time their company has done such donation, noting that it is part of the company cooperate social responsibility(CSR) and  a way of showing love to their Muslim brothers and sisters during the month of ramadan.

He added that, the donation is a way of sharing love and thanking Allah for the successes of the company and Kamal Abass furthered that fasting is one of the major pillars of Islam.

 In receiving the items on behalf of Inn-Muziki Mosque, the chief Imam Alhaji C.M Jalloh said that Orange SL always remembers their mosque during the month of Ramadan.

He described the donation as timely, noting that they had an already existing relationship with Orange SL and has been benefiting a lot since the arrival of the CEO Madam Aminata Kane Ndiaye.

He disclosed further that this is not the first time they have received such donation from Orange, adding that during the early period of Covid-19 when people were not allowed to go to worship centers Orange did come to their rescue.

He expressed appreciation to the CEO for being part of the presentation and further prayed for God’s continuous blessing in the life of all the staff and the company.

One of the Imam of Masjid-Nabawia Abdul Latiff Bangura also expressed thanks and appreciation to Orange SL for their timely intervention, adding that he is not surprised to receive such a donation.

Mr Bangura said the company had shown love not only to the mosque but to Allah also, noting that the donation is exactly what the almighty God wants for his people.

According to him, the donation came at the right time when they were thinking on how to prepare for the “Lalatugadri”, and further thanked the company on behalf of the entire Jammat for remembering their mosque amongst others.

 In another development, over 500 people were provided with food through Orange SL Jammah Sunakati to break their fast at Waterloo.

For the second week in a row, the leading telecommunications company in Sierra Leone, Orange has provided food for over 500 Muslim worshippers as Sunakati.

 On Thursday, the company mobilized its female staff and joined community women in Waterloo to cook delicious Sunakati meals for hundreds of worshippers at Waterloo Refugee Camp.

The Orange Jammah Sunakati initiative is the first of its kind by any mobile company and it started last week at Dwarzack. Orange says this is way of giving back to communities across the country during this month of Ramadan.

Thursday saw hundreds of worshippers, men, and women, young and old gather at Waterloo Refugee Camp after evening prayers and sat side by side to eat, marking the end of the fasting day.

Head of Communication and Branding at Orange Kallon said during the program that the company is happy to give back to not just Muslims but to Sierra Leoneans generally.

“As you know every Ramadan we try to give back to communities. This is what we do, we want to give back to Muslims during this month and every Sierra Leonean” Kallon said.

One of the community leaders and a sheikh said he was grateful for Orange’s support to the community. He said the support was crucial for their community at a time like this.

“We are happy that they chose our community for this. At a time like this we need a lot of support and so we are grateful to Orange for providing this (food) for us,” he said.

Jamma Sunakati is not the only intiative by Orange during this Ramadan. The company has set aside Le510 million to be given away in food items.

Everyday ten customers get Le750, 000 and Saturday draws will also see customers win as high as Le50million.

 Stats SL Releases Annual Consumer Price Index

By Mustapha Ezekiel Dumbuya

Statistics SierraLeone has on Tuesday 5^th May 2021 releases its first quarter annual consumer price index at their head office AJ Momoh Street in Freetown.

In addressing the media Professor Osman Sankoh the chief statistician General said that they are currently dealing with the first quarter of the 2021 annual price index, adding that they cannot release such report without using the previous annual report as a reference.

 The Professor also said that even though there are old items in the basket from the previous annual report but they could not erase them but their duty to only upgrading them and add another item in the basket.

He said they as statistians they cannot only do such work without following due process as according to him they have be working with the International Monitory  Fund, World Bank, Ministry of Finance, ministry of Trade, Bank Governor, ECOWAS and Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.

 The Statistician General expressed that as an institution set up by parliament they have all the energy, technical, method and qualification to do such work.

 He continued by thanking his team that is always visiting all the four regions in Sierra Leone to collect information from different markets.

Mr Sankoh said that even though they didn’t visit the villages but they make sure that they visit all the urban markets country wide, whiles adding that they have more than 1000 items in the markets but they collected 436 items.

Augustine S. Sheku the permanent secretary ministry of trade and industry started by thanking Stats SL for been putting on these information together and this has shown that the people that were chosen has done great for the interest of the people.

Mr Sheku pointed that the report is not coming from the government but it comes from a credible institution been enacted by an act of parliament and those that were appointed have the knowledge, skills  and attributes to be able to handling data related issue.

He continue that the New direction government has created a people centered policy that will address issues on what is reflecting to the people and improve the agricultural sector that will bring food sufficiency to the country.

“We have got two companies that is currently producing oil in the country and quiet they have just signed an agreement with a company that will be start processing Cement in sierra Leone and that is why we have seen the price of oil has been maintain in market” He said.

The Secretary also said that they have also created an Agro Processing and Competitiveness project to support small business.

He went further to note that just in November last year they gave out about 14 Billion Leones to farmers by way of  adding value on what is producing the life span of some of our products and keeping down the inflation of prices.

In his concluding statement, he reaffirm that they have been working with the Ministry of Finance adding that they also provide “Munafa” Leones that help small business people to add and improve their small agro business in the country.