After a rigorous assessment of competitive bidding process forwarded by 12 international participating companies, Subah Infosolutions, the only West Africa-based international company, won the contract.

Subah Infosolutions has a track record of managing the monitoring of International Gateway Traffic Systems in both Ghana and Guinea (Conakry).

Regulator in Sierra leone

The Sierra Leone National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) is mandated to regulate the telecommunications sector in Sierra Leone and to ensure the growth and sustainable development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in that country.

The commission, in performing its regulatory functions, is mandated to undertake capital investments for the purpose of acquiring telecommunications equipment and services and other necessities for the effective regulation of the telecommunications sector in line with international best practice for sustainable growth and development of the sector in that country.

The procurement of telecommunications management and monitoring services in the sector is very important for the commission in achieving the essential services and deliverables for which the commission was established, as contained in its statutory functions.

In line with these statutory mandate, NATCOM requested for bids for the purposes of engaging a service provider to provide International Gateway Monitoring Services, and Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited, an entity incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Ghana, participated and won the bid.

What is expected of Subah

Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited, per the contract with NATCOM, is expected to effectively monitor the quality of service in real time on international voice and data traffic between Sierra Leone and overseas destinations.

Subah is also expected to build and operate a non-intrusive telecommunications monitoring platform to monitor and report on all international terminating (incoming) and originating (outgoing) voice and data traffic into and out of the Republic of Sierra Leone respectively,  all domestic voice and data traffic within the territory of the Republic of Sierra Leone, including but not limited to traffic to, from and between Global System for Mobile (GSM) operators/carriers, Internet service providers and any other organisation and/or institution that utilises ??VSAT?? and/or fibre optic cable services.

The Chairman of NATCOM, Mr Momoh Konke, at the signing ceremony said Subah’s bid was "the most responsive" in the list of bidders.

He explained that the evaluation process was very transparent and accessible.

"Management of NATCOM is working very hard with Subah and very soon, we will see the presence of monitoring in the country's communication system," he stressed.

Performance of Subah

NATCOM is confident that with the recruitment of Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited, SIM Box fraud would soon be eliminated from Sierra Leone.

In line with this tech-savvy, Subah is expected to use its sophisticated technology in ensuring that anti-telecom fraud such as SIM Box fraud is detected and eliminated to the barest minimum.

The Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group, of which Subah is a subsidiary, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, who was present at the signing ceremony, mentioned that the goal of the ICT firm was to be number one in its sphere of operations in Africa and that gave Subah the motivation not only to do more, but also excel.

He revealed that the successes chalked up in Ghana and Guinea in monitoring such activities which led to a tremendous increase in revenue for the two countries was enough proof of Subah’s capacity and capabilities, which the company hoped to successfully deliver outside Ghana.

Mr Agyepong gave firm assurances that Subah, which is a wholly owned Ghanaian company, would not only deploy the same business model and technology in developing local capacity in the various African countries where it operated, but would also  transfer technology to them.

It will be recalled that Subah was adjudged the Best Telecom Traffic Monitoring Solution Company of the year at the Annual Africa Telecoms, Fraud and Revenue Assurance and Risk Management Forum 2016, recently organised by Falcon Business Research in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.