The impact of the banking sector development on the financial performance of the communication sector in sierra leone

1.3 An Overview of the Communication Sector in Sierra Leone 
In recent years Sierra Leone has reaped the benefits and keep benefiting of a 
sustained political stability just after the decade civil war. The nation 
experienced an adequate economic growth in 2012 and 2013 but still faced a 
lot of challenges that
’s brought about a downturn on foreign investment 
interest. The communication sector does suffer grave destructions during the 
civil war that lead to the colipase of at least all the institutions except for the 
national communication institutions. The sector has gradually over the years 
fighting recovery from the destructions but now experiencing significant 
developments since 2019 as there has been an infrastructure of a terrestrial 
fiber cable linking the neighboring nation of Guinea. 
The telecommunication sector continues to operate in challenging conditions 
as theft of cable, apparatus and other issues like mismanagement, neglect and 
corruption that led to the collapse and demise of some telecom provider, like 

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Comium, Smart Mobile etc. In lieu to this, the government set up the National 
Telecommunication Commission to regulate and oversees the general 
operational affairs of the industry in order to enhance their operational 
activities. The commission instituted regulations and control measures that has 
helped the sector greatly and also provides extra energy in order to enhance 
a better and improved market. Frequent monitoring and checks on service 
quality and the rescue of the international gateway among others are some of 
the ne
w input injected into the sector’s operations. 
The mobile sector leads the way in the development of the sector and has 
been the major drivers of revenue. The industry experienced a major 
movement in the market when Orange Group acquired Airtel Bhati in 2016 and 
Qcell a Gambian telcom company were granted licenses for full operations of 
mobile services in the country. 
The state-owned institution Sierratel that provides broadband and fixed 
wireless access services also entered the mobile services market with a brief 
monopoly on 3G network and by 2011 to 2012 others joined the 3G network. 
In recent times other providers have upgraded their network by investing on 
the LTE to enhances their services. The first LTE services was launched by 
Africell followed by Sierratel and Orange Sierra leone respectively between 
2018 and 2019. 
The current corona virus pandemic adversely impacted the supply chain 
globally, poses a significant threat to the communication sector in Sierra 
Leone. The communication sector in the coming years might experience a 
decline in the provision of mobile services and also faces difficulties to cope 
with the pressure in terms of maintaining existing infrastuctures and upgrades. 
The provision of 5G network might be suspended or slowdown as the 
pandemic poses threat on the value chain. According to (Budde, 2020) in their 
work stated that, telecom consumption will be challenged financially by job 
losses and businesses shutdown and other economic activities downturn.
The sector is of great importance to national building and plays a key role in all 
facet of the real economy. The sector stands as significant link and bridge to 

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narrow the gap within and among all other sector in the real economy and 
considered to be the life line of national development.