By Zainab Joaque
The Chairman, Board of Directors of Mercury International, the leading sport betting company in Sierra Leone, has disclosed that his company will dole out Le 3 billion to charity this year. Samir Hassanyeh made the disclosure at the weekend at the biennial conference of the Sports Writers’ Association of Sierra Leone (SWASAL). “Mercury International has set a budget of Le 3 Billion to help charities and sports” he said, adding that they were “the biggest sponsors of the Premier League last season” having given Le 200 million which saved the league from collapse. Hassanyeh also said that they supported under-16 amateur players to play football in various parts in Sierra Leone, especially in Freetown which he said was part of Mercury’s policy to continue with that sponsorship. He boasted that even though Mercury was not the biggest company in the country “what we are doing for the people of this country none of the bigger companies can compete with that.” He said that of the earmarked Le 3 billion, Le 750 million would go towards scholarships, monthly quota of rice to the handicapped, among other things. “We are going to start week by giving grants-in-aid to help with the high cost of the fees at universities”. He said that starting this week they would be visiting Fourah Bay College, Milton Margai, IPAM, and other institutions to help students carry on with their studies. The company has also been supporting the national football team, Leone Stars. In this regard, Hassanyeh said, “I want everybody to know that we don’t save money for Leone Stars but whenever [they] are travelling [and] they did not get their money on time, we [have] come in to take prompt action”. He said that they got a call at the last minute ahead of the Leone Stars match against Niger two years ago and they gave Le491,000 ,000 (four hundred and ninety one million Leones) for flight tickets and US$90,000 (ninety thousand dollars) for their per diem.
