By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT and Moses Emmanuel Mendy
A petition started by an Africell customer addressed to The Gambia’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), is calling for the country’s largest mobile communications company “to return the unlimited bundles or pay us [petitioners affected] back our money”. For almost a week now Social Media has been inundated with condemnations for the service provider, Africell, over cheating allegations.
Customers have complained that after purchasing an Unlimited 4G Data Bundle, expected to last for a month, they later learn that the data is limited to amount [see image below]. The public outcry eventually lead to a petition started by one Ameera Fofana gathering over 500 signatures in 24 hours.
This Monday 10th February 2020, Gainako visited Africell twice seeking for clarifications to the situation. In the morning a Gainako reporter visited the company’s Headquarters located in Kairaba Avenue, where he was informed that their spokesperson had traveled and another Africell Official agreed to see him after attending an urgent meeting.
Later in the afternoon two Gainako reporters meet one Mr Musa Ceesay, Spokesperson for Africell. Mr Ceesay declined to grant us an interview and proceeded to educate us in the technical aspects of telecommunications. According to him the matter is with PURA and he would not comment further on the complaints of Unlimited 4G Data Bundles being limited to an amount. He also informed us that he held series of meetings with the authorities in the morning who will be coming out with a response on the matter.
Questioned when the Unlimited 4G Bundles became limited, Mr Ceesay explained that all customers who bought their bundles at the Africell office from January 10th 2020 were informed of the changes [as seen in the image below]. Pressed further if he was not concerned with the Africell petition to PURA and customers planning a protest against the company. He responded to say those 300 people.