Africell Impact Foundation has been launched to give enhanced support to Africell initiatives with social impact in the areas of education and entrepreneurship; arts, culture and heritage; and health, sports and wellbeing.
Africell Impact Foundation aims to connect people to communities. Its ambition is to narrow Africa’s opportunity gap by deploying Africell’s expertise as a telecommunications operator to link people to the digital and physical resources they need to engage fully in community life and build better futures.
Africell Impact Foundation applies to Africell’s four operating markets: Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Programs are tailored to each country’s needs, combining Africell’s global perspective as a US-owned pan-African operator with detailed local understanding.
The three areas in which Africell Impact Foundation will focus efforts are:
Education and entrepreneurship: giving people access to learning tools and resources and the skills to start and grow businesses
Arts, culture, and heritage: giving a platform to local arts and culture and collaborating with artists, makers, and creators to showcase original local content
Health, sports, and wellbeing: providing facilities and equipment which promote active lifestyles and improve health standards
Africell Impact Foundation will also be involved in coordinating Africell Group’s corporate response to humanitarian, health and environmental emergencies in its operating markets.
Africell Impact Foundation was officially announced at events in Kinshasa, Freetown and Banjul. Africell Impact was presented to current and prospective partners, with governments, NGOs and other companies invited to collaborate on current and future projects.
“Social impact is part of our business model”, says Ziad Dalloul, Africell Group CEO and Chairman. “Africell Impact’s creation is an acceleration, not a change of course. We see no contradiction between commercial success and empowering local communities. By bringing our wide-ranging cultural and community work into a streamlined structure with central planning and oversight, we will maximise its impact and reach more people”.
Africell Impact Foundation is part of Africell Group. Directed by a committee, it will supervise Africell’s cultural and community work and ensure that the social aspects of Africell’s commercial ventures, products and services are brought within a single strategic framework. Africell Impact’s scope includes purely charitable or philanthropic initiatives in addition to those with both social and commercial angles, such as tech-enabled educational services and commercially viable locally produced content.