Minister of Information and Communications (Minister of Information and Communications)

Sierra Leone has a wonderful heritage and history of many firsts in Africa. The country has experienced outstanding growth for over a decade making it one of the fastest growing economies worldwide. In your own words, what are the main comparative advantages of Sierra Leone within the West African region?

I think we are rightly located in the sub region. We are in the west coast of Africa, so if you look at the geographical position of the country, you will realize that Sierra Leone is located in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Also, what is unique about Sierra Leone is our cultural heritage. Sierra Leoneans are one people, we sometimes had been accused to be more welcoming to foreigners then to us. We are very open up and a very resilience nation especially if you look to our history and what we have been through; Civil War and Ebola.
I think we are still standing very tall in making progress. If you see the three most affected countries of Ebola we are the first country to pick up from Ebola and today we are talking about 4.3% projected growth for 2017 in Serra Leone.


The disastrous Ebola epidemic has devastated Sierra Leone and had tremendous consequences on the country’s GDP growth in 2014 reaching a -20% low. The social and human impact has also been disastrous with about 11.000 people death count. However, his Excellency has implemented a Post Ebola Recovery Strategy plan to attract FDIs and reassure the international community. To you, what has to be done to fully recover from this tragedy?

We have recovered from the disease, but the impact we are still suffering from it. The image of our country has suffered a lot. Still today there are a lot of people that when you say that you are coming from Sierra Leone, the first thing that comes to their minds it is; how is Ebola?

So what we are doing as a government is to rebrand the country’s image internationally, just as we did after the war. To let the international community know that Sierra Leone is more than Ebola. Ebola is already behind us and we are now looking at a post Ebola Era that can take us back where we were before Ebola, as the fastest growing economy. We have plenty of natural resources such as; bauxite, iron ore, we have the recent oil discoveries, we have gold and of course we are known to have the best diamonds in the sub region.

We are preparing the country to be the best place to do business, before Ebola we were on that track. But the good thing about all of this is the security situation of the country. We are one of the best most peacefully countries according to the world peace index and I thing that is one of aspects that international investors look at. You move freely without having the hesitation that something is going to happen to you.

Also, nowadays we have a political tolerance. We have gone trough elections form ruling party to the opposition and we organized the elections very peacefully and a year from now we are going to have elections. So you can see the sense of calmness in the country.

For all this reasons Sierra Leone is the best place to invest now. You put your investment here you and recover your investment here.


The telecommunication sector is of major importance for the development of a country considering its positive impacts on connecting Sierra Leone to the rest of the world we would love to understand the main challenges in your sector and the opportunities. How can the communication and information sector contribute to Sierra Leone’s growth?

There are several opportunities. This is a sector that is on top for now. We have three operators with a 3G license and we are talking about 4G now and in the future we will be going to 5G. We have the fiber optic but 80% of it is unused.

As a government we look at ICT as one of natural resources in Sierra Leone, because I can tell you for sure the natural resources has failed in Sierra Leone. Most of the conflicts were a result of diamonds conflict and the people had not benefited from that. Because we mismanaged our natural resources in the past we look at ICT as one sector full of potential that if we manage it properly Sierra Leone will benefit a lot from it.

As a country we are taking this sector very seriously and that’s why we are looking at players to come in and help invest in that direction.  


The ministry’s mission is to develop all segment of the information and communications sector in order to keep the citizens well and timely informed, educated and sensitized about the activities of all branches of Government and to enhance the image of Sierra Leone in the eyes of the outside world. What are the role and responsibilities of the Ministry of Information and Communication in enhancing Sierra Leone business environment?

We are more of a policy Ministry. We have under my Ministry the National Telecommunication, Natcom, they are the regulators of the telecom sector. We have also under my ministry SALCAB, they are the ones responsible to manage the fiber optic cable. Still under my ministry we have the Post Service, which in the past few years is ruined, we are now trying to revitalize it. We also have a SLNA, Sierra Leone News Agency which is not in operation and we are not trying to get it back. And of course the SLNBC- Sierra Leone National Broadcast.

Our role as the Ministry is to provide a policy direction and when we took over this Ministry the ITC policy we had was outdated since 2006. Now with the new ICT challenges we are finishing the policies, we put together the final draft, which is now ready for cabinets so all the players can come to the markets with the laws in place.  Where we are now, we don’t have any registration laws to go after them for inefficiency. The market is not yet regulated fully but I can tell you for sure that with the new ITC policy we will be ready for cabinet call anytime and the market will be fully regulated.


Do you think having a regulated market would be also an asset for Sierra Leone to attract more players?

Most of the laws need to be created so will allow big players to come to invest and stay here.
For example when we went to Israel last time, one of the big players there in the market asked us for a policy. They want to make sure the laws are there to protect them and support them. That’s why is a priority for us to get the ICT policy and law.


The National Fiber Optic project has been undertaken in the year 2013 as well as having the WARCIP project at the same time – Could you explain us the difference between these two projects? Are they done already? What other projects are in the pipeline?

It’s almost the same because they are both relaying on the same network. SALCAB are the regulators and they are the ones taking care of the network and the national fiber optic cable.
WARCIP make sure the connection between Sierra Leone and the region is made properly.
We are now in the end of the project, in the last mile and we need private companies to come and take the last part. That should not be a government investment.


What is the stage of the WARCIP project now?

We are at 70% now.

What we are doing now is to commercialize the fiber optic. When you do it you will have more players.

Even the international investors they know very little about the fiber optic that we have here. After the law we need to vigorously go out there and tell the international players that they can come here and invest at a reasonable amount of resources because we have the fiber optic.


Also, the Internet penetration is really low.

It’s all part of it. There are no mechanisms and there are no laws. What we are doing now is to commercialize the fiber optic so we will have more players in the market determining the price. Also will allow Sierra Leoneans to accesses the internet on a daily basis.


You were fortunately studying in the beautiful city of Toronto and you are considered to be a grass root politician with a bright political future  – We are interested in understanding what brought you here and what are you most proud of?

I came from a political home. My grandfather was a self-proclaimed chief. Later my uncle was the minister of finance and he also had the third largest political party in the country.
I am a journalist by profession. During the war I was a political correspondence of a newspaper called; “a new breathe” were we exposed high level corruption.
Later I flew to Turkey to study, I have been there for 6 months and later Canada embraced me as journalist so I went there as an emigrant. Since that after my studies I decided to come back to Sierra Leone continue my work as a journalist.
I am also a human activist, during the war I used to run the biggest local NGO in the country named Sierra Leone Canada Watch. I was shipping tones of containers to Sierra Leone to bring items for people who needed at the time. I felt much involved in the situation of my country that after the war I decided to help my country so I came back in 2006.

I ran as a member of parliament I also found a my own party and 2 weeks to elections the president called me and asked me to join him at APC (All People’s Congress) at the time. I have a family relationship with the president but not my blood family. But because of the relationship with my late father I call him uncle. So I consulted with my party members and decided to step down and support the President.

If you want to really contribute to building your Nation you cannot do it from the outside you have to belong. You cannot just limit yourself to critisaze that or that Minister when you have the opportunity to do be part so I decided to join and the president named me the Minister of Information.


You are still very young, what is your ambition as a Politician?

I want to be the President of this Country, that is my wish. But I am not going to kill myself for that. At my age I have held a good position in this country and I always believe everything that comes your way is trough god almighty and also your efforts. I don’t want to be the President at all cost I just want to make my contribution to Sierra Leone.


Personal message to EbizGuides readership to attract investors to Sierra Leone

Pack your bags and come to Sierra Leone, this is a peaceful and lovely country. We have the atmosphere conditions to do business here, we have a friendly and warm nation. Pack your bags and come.