Africell is a mobile telecommunications company serving The Gambia

The Gambia

The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....

 and Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

. It is a subsidiary of the Lebanese telecommunications company Lintel Holding.

Africell has750,000 subscribers (2q 2011) in the Gambia and 1,100,000 in Sierra Leone (2q 2011).

All its core network and radio equipments are supplied by Siemens

Siemens

Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

.

Africell Gambia

Africell is the Leading GSM Operator in the Gambia with more than 69% of the GSM market Share.

Marketing campaigns

Africell Gambia has a prominent advertising and promotional presence in the country and contributes significantly in sports and youth development, and health and education.

Dream house competition

A long running campaign in which subscribers had the chance the win a house worth 3,000,000 dalasis (about US $138,000) came to a dramatic conclusion in January 2008 when policeman Mr Ahagie Badgie's name was drawn from a jar. Mr Badgie, who is seriously ill in hospital, commented “Even if I don’t survive I would be happy that my children would be staying in the house.” The two runners-up each received 50,000 dalasis.

Face of Africell

The company launched a pageant to find "Gambian ladies between the ages of 18–25, attractive and who possessed the qualities of communication skills, a good education, self-confident [sic], reliance, and ability to convince prospective clients for Africell". Around 200 candidates applied to participate in the competition.

The eventual winner was Yamundow Leigh, who has since appeared in various promotions for Africell. She also won a car as a prize.

Football sponsorship

Africell sponsors the GFA League First Division Sait Matty football team. It also sponsors the Gambian national side

Gambia national football team

The Gambia national football team, nicknamed The Scorpions, is the national team of Gambia and is controlled by the Gambia Football Association. Until 1965, the team, and the country, were known as British Gambia...

and the Gambia Under-17 football team that won the African Cup in April 2009.

Back to The Land

The Back to the Land promotion was launched on 15 April 2009 (for a period of three months)

This promotion consisted of two parts:

1. Free Ploughing

2. Tractors

• The Free ploughing competition consists of a weekly draw were the subscribers won Free ploughing and Free fertilizing materials.

• The Tractors competition consisted of 3 monthly Draws(2 Tractors/month). Only subscribers from the upcountry (rural) regions could participate in this part of the competition.

This competition aimed to encourage people to get back to their lands and farms.