Executive Director (Sierra Leone Maritime Administration)

Sierra Leone has a wonderful heritage and history of many firsts in Africa. It’s always being like a country that has lot of potential within the region. In your own words, what do you think are the main competitive and comparative advantages of your country within the Western Africa Region – what makes Sierra Leone unique?

This is the Maritime House, the sector that is responsible for maritime activities in the country; looking after the seas, the ships, rivers, everything that has to do with water. We are strategically located in West Africa and because of that, we are trying to make Sierra Leone a hub for transhipment as being the third natural harbour in the world. Comparatively, we are doing better off compare to other countries because of our location and the cost for doing business in our country is quite cheap. We see the Maritime Office which was established in 2000 to deal with these kinds of issues because from forecasting and projections, we saw that with time there will be increase traffic relating to the sea. Also, when the mining companies book-up; the Africa Minerals, London Mining, we had lot of traffic to handle. If there was no speciality in handling these vessels, we could have landed ourselves into lot of issues. Again, we had to do lot of training to actually bring people up to speed, to adapt with the situation at the time. This is why you see our office is so big; we have lots of specialist working here together with other agencies. I am also a common visitor to other neighbouring countries doing consultancies. So of them want to copy our examples as well, basically how we do our deeds with regards to handling of ships, protection with marine environment. Basically, these are the kind of things we do here, and comparatively I think we are position very well to actually handle some of these issues.

Do you think that Ebola has had an impact on your business - do you think that the country is recovering from it?

Thank God we have a very proactive president, if not for the Ebola I think we could have been in some other place by now, but because of the Ebola a lot of things happened.  Thank God the president has recovering priorities and I think it is going on well. We are actually not part of that, the recovering priorities and the agencies involved. During the time of the Ebola we have some shut down but not in terms of the vessels because the goods will always come at the key. There was no Ebola at the key but the interfacing was the problem. Like for us we have our field officers who were also out there working with people because like I said it is not about the foreign ships, it is about local vessels. We have thousands of local vessels all over the country doing business. Lot of the people in the provinces transport their wares through these local boats (wooden boats). Our officers did not suffer from the Ebola because we had protective measures that we put in place at that time.

The president outlined a strategy focused on the key sectors of the economy considering the importance of foreign and direct investments – what do you think will forester the business climate in Sierra Leone? What can be improved? How do you make sure that there is a Maritime House in every sector of the economy?

Like I said, this is the Head Quarters of the Maritime House and we also have other offices in the provinces. We have five (5) river lines in the districts in the country and each of this districts we have offices to actually relate to us here. Again we have close to 200 field staffs out there just to make sure that we are able to keep up with the regulations we have with these vessels. Before now we used to have lots of accidents with these vessels at sea and that made an impact on our economy so much but with the kind of control measures that we have put in place, I think lots of people are showing interest in the business because it is safer now. We have lots of regulations and we are putting measures to facilitate their business. Now we do not hear a lot of unlawful act like before people used to go out and attack foreign vessels coming but we do not hear such complains anymore, it is a thing of the past. Also, we as Maritime Administration we are always trying to provide the enable environment for people to come. Like recently, I was out of the country trying to mobilise private sector operators to bring in ferries to run in the country. It is not just about providing buses for people on the road but we also have to get ferries because we have lot of people travelling from Freetown to Lungi. You can see from the sea coach, the sea birds, these small ferries and we have these big ferries carrying passages as well as vehicles. So we are making sure that we do not have red tips for people coming to operate here. We have got a lot of proposals, quite recently we have to ground most of the ferries because there conditions but we have got them running again, and other people will also bring in new ferries as well. Once that is done, the transport system at sea will be fine and people will be able to move freely because transportation is very important. If you have your wares and not able to move them, it will become a very serious problem, that is why we are pressing on the government to actually pay attention to these ferries. But one thing we have made clear is that we want to leave these ferries into the hands of private people and we will provide the environment for them. Some people will say why The Maritime cannot buy ferries? We cannot be the player and the referee at the same time. If we buy ferries, we will pull so many people out of business.

We do not run these ferries; we are a regulator just like NATCOM. First, the mandate on which we were established was to develop and improve the shipping industry in Sierra Leone. Basically, regulating the inland water waste transport in the country and also for the registration of ships as well, and any other related agencies. We regulate the ports, shipping agencies and everything that has to do with shipping we regulate. We are also the vocal point for the International Maritime Organisation in London. We are the ones making sure that all conventions that are adopted and ratified we bring them to Sierra Leone, domesticate them and make the necessary regulations and to do the implementation as well. Again, we generate revenue as well. In our Act, we have what we called fate levy. Like for every cargo that comes into the country you pay an amount of levy and that levy comes to the administration which eventually is paid to the government of Sierra Leone. We are the ones collecting those funds. In addition to our national duties we have an office overseas which registers international vessels as well which is located in Cyprus. We used to have in Singapore but we close that because of many problems. We also have an office in Dubai but Cyprus is the main office, so we are trying because we have started this in the last two years. We are trying to move on because the essence is to expand our offices outside. For every 3 or 4 times in the year, I go to Cyprus. I have an office there were I go to do some work in maybe 1 or 2 weeks then come back to check what is going on, check the books, financials or whatever technical issues we have.

You were talking about training and updating people – do you do that on a regular basis?

Yes of course, in fact that was the challenge we had when I took over. Like I said, it is difficult to get Maritime professionals in Sierra Leone. The universities we have, we are not training maritime professionals it is just mechanical engineers, etc. I was a mechanical engineer and later I went to Ghana and did marine engineering as well. We started this office during that time we were on the small building you see on the right hand side coming down. We were there until we finished building this one then we transferred. The problem was when we came here; we needed to have good staffs so we did a lot of training. Now we have so many people with the right capacity to do almost everything for which our Act establishes us.

Would you consider yourself an innovative institution?

Maritime issues are not static, you must be dynamic and innovatory otherwise you will not cope with the times. Every time we revise our conventions and things we discussed, because things changed; climate change comes in, a lot of activities with the ships like ship designs, so like for every time we have to be on top of everything. Because if things change and you go on board the ship, you have to see exactly what is suppose to be on board. You have to know that from this time to this time this should not be on board it has to be A, B and C, so if you go without the right knowledge then the masters will just be making a fool out of you.
Like I said earlier, compare to other offices in the sub-region some of them are cueing from us. We have the red sheet staffs, we cut barriers and we do not choose who to send for training. Once we know that you are suppose to go for training we send you because at the end of the day, we want results. This is a public office and you will be leaving one day so when that happens you should leave a legacy. I have been here for the past fifteen (15) years and I am sure that the capacity building we have done is not comparable to any of the offices in the region. Like I said, most of them when they have issues they will crosscheck with this office, they network with the SLMB and we have lot of professionals to actually give them the necessary advice that is required and we coordinate their activities as well especially in areas of chartered rescue and maritime security.

As the port extension signed Bollore is going to take charge of as a concession will increase your business as well – do you plan to hire more staffs in order to handle this port extension?

It is an expansion process so it means that the port also has to expand. Few days ago we had a meeting here on that because we have the Local Content Agency Act.  So we are pressuring them to hire people apart from the expansion and when all that is finished professionally they will need more people to come because they are now increasing the port to another level. So cranes will be coming and we need to train people to handle them. But I think with that expansion, port operations will be very fast and the turnaround timing will reduce and ships will not be delayed as they use to.

The Maritime Administration is as well as very involved in environmental friendly programmes and projects; you recently met with the EPA - What was the reason of that meeting?

Earlier I said that we have agencies that we collaborate with and EPA is one of them. Our mandate is for the protection and manning of the environment. Basically, we deal with ships; provisions coming from the ships, whether accidental or operational discharges. We also look at the oils coming from these vessels so that they do not pollute the seas. We make sure that the ships have the correct equipments on board; so that what they discharge have no effects on the seas, so we are connecting with EPA. We have a serious problem with the land force, a lot of people just throw drabbles all over and when rain comes, everything is washed down to the sea. So this is an issue we discussed and then try to see how we can move on with the sensitisation; educating people to keep their waste and not just throw them out to the sea. It is a very serious problem for us because when the ships are coming and the propellers happen to mix with any of those, it will cause proportion problems not just for the foreign ships, maybe they will be better but for the local vessels especially the ones using the out board engines, it becomes a very serious problem for them. That is why even like the sea coach, sometimes it will be mid sea and then the engines will just shut maybe because of some plastics. So this is the kind of education we are trying to bring awareness to people.

What are your strengths apart from your staffs – what other things can you offer that make you strong?

We have the staffs with the right education and we make sure that we are able to carry out our mandate. We are a regulator, and over the years we have been able to stand out clearly in the country. We make sure we cover all of our areas within the country, before it was not like that and it create lot of incidents at sea. In the area of chartered rescue, we are able to respond immediately because we have five boats that serves the country. Before when incidents happens, it will take time before we reach the sea but now with just a phone call or through the mobile HF radio we will be able to respond. It is not that incidents do not happen but because we are able to respond, it makes it easier for us because before anything happens we are already at the scene. I think chartered rescue is one of our best capabilities for now. Also the port, we are going to regulate them because whatever conventions that has to do with the port we have to make sure they are implemented immediately.

How do you see yourself within the next ten (10) years as an institution – what is your ambition? What is the ambition of the institution?

We are always striving to be the best in the region and not just the region because we are expanding to East Africa (Kenya), Maritime authority, and exchange ideas. Recently, we were in Mombasa to exchange ideas, to see what they have and they also copy from us. For instance, in the area of ship registering programmes, the tertiary office that we have; they asked us couple of questions because it involves a lot of activities. Basically, in the next five (5) to ten (10) years I think the SLMB will have grown more than what we are now because we want to actually take charge of the region, to increase our capacity and to make sure we are able to handle all issues relating to maritime. We are also gearing ourselves for this petroleum thing; we went to Nigeria because they have the experience in dealing with oil. The government always asked about issues concerning the maritime and we give them the necessary advice.

Out of all your achievements - what are you most proud of?

Actually, one thing I am very proud of is being in this position. Like I said earlier, entry the Maritime Administration as nobody over the years (15 years), it was difficult to get maritime professionals. Even if you come down with a Mechanical Engineering or whatever thing, you need to change to Marine Engineering before you can fit into the system. Like most of the guys now that I have that are boasting of big positions are Civil Engineers because we do not have Maritime Colleges, I had to change their mind set. They were just cueing from me because I also changed from Mechanical Engineer to Marine Engineer. I am very proud of myself for achieving all of these over the years. I remember when I went to parliament for my confirmation and parliament said that if president Koroma had appointed another person they would have rejected him because they know for sure that in Sierra Leone at that time, Jalloh (myself) is the rightfully person to handle that office. Everybody consults me and for the president, once I speak it is final. So I am happy about that and even if I leave now at least I will be proud because I started from nowhere to the top on merit.

What will you tell the investment community to come to Sierra Leone and invest?

As a Maritime Administration what we always do together with the Minister of Transport is to tell those who have showed interest in this business that they can come. It is not our role but we can go to the extra mile to actually advice and consult for them so that they can run a profitable business because in shipping 70% of the course is for operations and maintenance, so if you are not able to manage that then it is a very serious problem. Sierra Leone is open for business so shipping companies should come and I do not think they will have problems as long as you are genuine, we can help you and even render pro-bono services like advising and consulting. We want people to come and provide ferry services and we are also encouraging people to come and render services from one country to the other. We wish to have those services from Freetown, Guinea, Liberia (Coastal Services). But there are so companies in Greece and we have given them all the assurances for them to come and start this coastal business. Although we have so things to do back home with regards to our infrastructure, the terminals; we need to adjust them but we are now in discussion for those kinds of things. I think the shipping industry is growing and with the expansion project going on and lot of private investors at the port, I think lot of things are bound to happen.