Areeba, Ghana’s leading mobile telecommunication service provider, has dedicated its recent Ghana Club 100 topmost award to its customers. This is the fourth consecutive time that Areeba has won the award which is hugely coveted in local corporate circles. The company won the award first in 2002 and repeated the enviable feat in rapid succession in 2003, 2004 and again in the recent 2005 edition. The award was presented by the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama. Reacting to the coveted award in an interview, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brett Goschen, while praising the enabling economic environment which contributed hugely to the company’s continuous investment in the country, also dedicated the award to customers. He continued, ‘We dedicate this new addition to our growing stable of awards to all our stakeholders, particularly our cherished customers across the country. To them, we pledge our enduring commitment to network improvement.' The Chief Executive Officer highlighted the company’s efforts towards improving the network quality. ‘As we have consistently promised, Areeba is engaged in a Network Expansion Programme and an extensive Network Optimization Project.' According to Mr. Goschen, the Network Optimization project is designed exclusively to fine-tune the network quality. The combined effects of both projects, he revealed, would mean that soon Areeba’s customers would be able to discern a steady but sure improvement in total network quality. ‘There are concerted and sustained efforts to improve the network quality', he promised. 'Indeed in the last three months alone, Areeba has mounted well over two hundred base stations, spread across several regions in the country.' He continued, ’These are both for totally new areas and enhancing the capacity for other areas.’ Ghana Club 100 awards are eagerly awaited on the nation’s corporate scene. Managed by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the awards rank the best one hundred companies in the country according to a set of stringent criteria where weightings are awarded using certain parameters. They are size, profitability, growth and employment generation. For the 2005 edition, a new criterion that exclusively recognizes corporate social responsibility was introduced. Six core areas under this element were scrutinized. They include health concerns, education, poverty alleviation, environment and issues concerning the socially vulnerable. Commenting on the new addition, Mr. Goschen agreed that it was especially relevant since Corporate Social Responsibility is presently a critical success factor in business. ‘It is an excusable cliché that says that businesses today have to give back to the community in which they operate. Areeba, for 2005 alone, allocated over 4 billion cedis to this essential cause. Areeba will remain as committed as always to Corporate Social Responsibility’’ he concluded. Source - Areeba