A. Our Ministry is called the Ministry is Labour, Social Security and Industrial Relations. When we talk about labour we talk about issues related to employment and in the Ministry we have various divisions that carry out the various mandates we are dealing with. We have the employment division, the social security division, the industrial relations division and we have also the factory inspections division. These are the various divisions within the Ministry that are dealing with the various responsibilities. In the area of employment, the employment division deals with general employment issues of expatriates as well as nationals, that is to say all potential workers who want to enter our markets. They have the responsibility to register throughout the employment division. For the nationals and for the foreigners when coming to Sierra Leone whether they are investors or the ones that will work with any international organization they have all the responsibility to register in the ministry of labour. Basically that is what we do with the division of employment. There are various procedures that one has to go through but I am not going to into details now.

Q. One of the major challenges now, is to get the young people involved in the development of the country, what can the Ministry do to that extent? How are you trying to boost employment among the young?

A. As a Ministry we collaborate with other related Ministries, for instance in the area of investment, the Ministry of Trade and Industry is the one that has the mandate to work closer with potential investors, attracting foreign investment and promoting trade in the country, what our Ministry does in that particular area is to provide them with the necessary support and in some cases to provide them with skilled personnel. We also work with other institutions that provide support, the kind of jobs that people need and the kind of skills that are available so when the Ministry of trade tries to attract local investors we try to mobilize the local workforce. The ministry also collaborates with the Ministry of Education that is responsible for the division of education to raise the potential of human resources of the country. As a ministry we also participate on designing some of the programs for people when entering the job market. Essentially we do not provide jobs but we coordinate our actions with other Ministries. For example most of our population is involved in agriculture. We try to introduce people to the concept of labour farms that take place in all the communities so that communities will build their own farms. To that respect we work hand in hand with the Ministry of Agriculture. At the end of the day we provide employment to our people. In the work of the Ministry of Marine Resources that deals with fish and other aspects, the Ministry of Labour is also directly involved when they are trying to establish fish farms.

Q. Could you tell us maybe about some of the latest projects that you are developing now?

A. Well, the ones that I mentioned already are some of the major ones that we are developing just yesterday we had one of our ministers who presented us a project on medium and small scale enterprises, which are also critical in terms of employment creation and these are projects that we try to forward to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, as I mentioned. One of the activities that I think we need to sell is the establishment of cooperative societies. We have found that most of our people, especially in rural areas want to mobilize the required capital for them to start receiving full investment programs. They have been encouraged to work trough cooperatives. The Ministry also participates in the distribution of micro credits; it is one of the programmes of the Government to provide some financial assistance to the worst affected by the war and to help them get back to their villages and communities.

Q. The creation of the social security system is closely related to your name, how it is progressing and to what extent were you able to develop it?

A. As you rightly said the social security system is a very new phenomenon in Sierra Leone. It was His Excellency the President who decided to introduce this system before the end of his term. The one that we are implementing is called social insurance. The members of it, that is to say the workers, contribute a certain percentage of their salary, 5% and the employer contributes 10% that makes a total of 15% contribution on behalf of the employee, to the national social security scheme. Actually, what the President had in mind was, to introduce a system of social assistance that would provide for the very poor and the people that have been seriously affected by the war. After looking at the global aspect of the situation we found that it will be very difficult to maintain that organization from the state budget. That is why we have decided to establish a system with contributions from the workers. Now we are pleased to announce that the various structures have been established, the national HQ is in Freetown and this weekend we have opened regional offices in Bo and other cities. That way we are bringing the social security to the members, so they can register with the purpose of benefiting from it at the end. Currently there are three categories that the scheme is providing for: old age retirement benefits, invalidity benefits and benefits for survivors. As you probably know, there are 9 contingencies for any social security in the world but it is impossible to start with all of them at the same time. Other contingencies will be added to this list in the future after careful investigation. Apart from the direct benefits that individuals will have, the state will also have the possibility to mobilize abundance of resources to engage in other meaningful development projects. We intend in our policy measures, especially in the area of investments, to engage these funds in labour intensive programs. Say, for instance in the area of social housing, that would provide us with more employment, around five to ten thousand jobs, and more contributors to the social security scheme which will raise our funds more. The final objective is to have full employment. In terms of infrastructure development these funds will definitively have an impact. At the same time we are also introducing what we call a social security net or social security as it is called, this is for the people that are too poor or unable to work even if provided with jobs, for people that are permanently disabled even though they have not contributed to any social security scheme before. These particular people we are going to provide with assistance like shelter, medicaments, clothes, etc. Some funds have already been allocated by the Government and we can already start providing for these people.

Q. As far as I know there are also foreign investors interested in the development of the social security sponsored projects like the construction of social housing.

A. These are just people that have shown their interest, like for instance, there was a German group that came and showed us the kind of communities that they can build with their technology. I also led a Government delegation to Egypt, and there we have also found interested parties, they have promised to come in the middle of July to establish their company here with participation from the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation and perhaps the Sierra Leonean Government. There are presently some businessmen here from Spain. All of these are international institutions that will bring us their expertise, especially in the area of designing. As you know, these are businessmen and they are also looking for business opportunities and they believe that the social security system is one of the possible financers of these constructions.

Q. What are the most important qualifications that foreign investors should have when planning to come to Sierra Leone?

A. I am not the one responsible for setting the qualification criteria. We have a group of local specialists that are evaluating the plans, we have local architects, investment analysts, and only after these people have evaluated the projects, they will be submitted to us. One of the most important aspects for us will be the employment of nationals. You must provide employment to our people and contribute to our national growth.

Q. You have a very pro active attitude of establishing contacts with foreign investors; to what extent were you able to develop it?

A. We are not prevented from initiating any things that are for the good of the country. I will initiate it and then I make sure that I will pass it on to the relevant Minister. I will give you an example, last month I was in the US and I met a group of lawyers that want to take legal action against other US businessmen for their participation in the business of conflict diamonds during the war. I invited these people and presented them to the Attorney General, they have also met with the Vice President and now they are developing the concept. You also have to know that this attitude is not only done by me, but by all of us and we always take advantage of the contacts that we can make when we are abroad.

Q. It is always interesting to learn about the personal background of our interviewees, could you tell us about the challenges you had to face to become the Minister of Labour, social security and industrial relations?

A. I am a lecturer, I worked in the high school for about 8 years and briefly I had a part time job in the University too, in the department of philosophy. I was the secretary general of the Sierra Leonean Teachers Union for about 10 years. I also worked in the Sierra Leonean Workers Congress, which is the umbrella organization for all workers. In the meantime I also had some affiliation with Education International from Brussels, the International Labour Organization. I also did a "school to work" program, which was dealing with the issue of going from the school to the place of work, how pupils can get internships, and practical training. From there, His Excellency the President appointed me to the position of Minister in 1999 and ever since then I am here.

Q. There have been a lot of success in the work of the Ministry but t there is still a lot to be done, what are the challenges that you are facing still?

A. The biggest challenge remains the establishment and conservation of industrial peace. For that we have established an industrial court, it is there to make sure that the workers of the country are provided with the appropriate rights. The Government can also be charged in that industrial court, to make sure that all parties comply with the law. The challenge will be to strengthen it and to bring it to the regions. Of course the question of ex-combatants and their employment will remain one of the most important priorities in the future. For the public service sector, we have to raise the salaries, it is very important to allocate correctly the incomes of the Government. We also have the responsibility to strengthen the safety and security of the people employed in the industrial production sector. It is very hard to make people comply with these standards, since we are coming from a war situation and we have to make certain concessions to be able to relaunch the economy. I must also note that we don't have frequent working accidents. We are also responsible for the human resources and training of people, to have more specialists, we are trying to see how we can work on that with the other related ministries and many other things.

The Sierra Leonean workforce is a mixture. We have highly professional people in all areas, but we have also suffered a major brain drain. We need to recruit a lot of lecturers to the university, the judiciary system needs new people, last time in the cabinet meeting it was one of the issues that we were dealing with, which is how to attract foreign judges to Sierra Leone, since most of the people does not want to become judges, they prefer to stay solicitors, for example, so that they can charge their fees, but when you become a judge you have a fixed salary and many don't like it. There are still many challenges ahead, if I would want to summarize it, the major challenge remains, to put the right people in the right position.