Executive Director (Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority)

Interviewer:  Sierra Leone has a wonderful heritage and history of many firsts in Africa. It is unique for its diversity and its beautiful landscapes. For that reason I would like to know what are the main competitive and comparative advantages of Sierra Leone?

Sierra Leone is unique in diverse ways; When you look at our religious tolerance, it is very unique, you cannot easily find that in any state. There are inter-marriages and people from different religious backgrounds can live together. We attend mosque and church services regardless of being a Muslim or a Christian. So we interact, despite our religious beliefs, we just believe that you have your free-will to choose. One thing that enhances this inter-religious tolerance is the fact that there is only one God and we believe you can serve Him by learning to live peacefully with the next man. For the inter-marriages, the children have the free-will to choose whether they want to be a Muslim or a Christian. It is very unique, which is uncommon in many countries.

Another thing that makes us unique is the way we do business, which is key for any country’s  economy to develop. Before now, we used to have complaints about people transacting business being slow. I want to commend our president for facilitating business registration thereby making it easy for investors to interact and establish their business. Thus, one does not need to nominate a national to take the lead in your business which makes it unique. Above all, Sierra Leone is very peaceful and friendly. When you come to this place you do not have to feel threatened, security wise. One is free to walk around; one can go to our night clubs and not be harassed. That is another unique thing about Sierra Leone. Sierra Leoneans are very helpful and accommodating. Once they know that you are a foreigner, they are always there to lend a helping hand. Having gone through a civil war and the Ebola crises you will find out that we are quick to adjust. After the civil war we try to embrace all even the ones that hurt us. The recently ended Ebola epidemic is a case in point and as we tried to pick up again to make sure the economy goes back at least to where it was. Thus Sierra Leone is very unique. It is a small country of about seven (7) million people. We are trying to develop the country from every sphere of life. It is not easy for a third world country but we are trying to manage the economy in line with best international practice on governance and the rule of law.

Sierra Leone has been Ebola-free for over a year now. However, the economic and social impacts were tremendous and tragic for Sierra Leone. As you have mentioned already, the country is quite resilient – what do you think is there to be done for the country to fully recover from this tragedy?

I think we need to improve on our health sector, which is key. This is because when you move around, you will say Sierra Leone is beautiful but the filth around will not allow you to appreciate the country much. Next week from my own end, we are going to lunch an operation called “Operation Clean-up for Road Safety”. We want to clean the roads and streets from derelict, stationary and abandoned vehicles. So, if we are able to enhance the health sector, it will help us. We need to go back and check what brought about the deadly virus called Ebola and make sure it does not occur again. We need to pay greater and increasing attention to the Ebola victims/survivors by giving them helping hand. This is because it is rumoured that they are struggling with other diseases. I understand the government has planned to effectively help them.

The President outlined a strategy – “Agenda for Prosperity”- as well as a post recovery strategy after Ebola. These main strategies focus on Energy, Agriculture, Fisheries, Natural Resources and Infrastructure. Hence, considering the importance of foreign direct investment for your SIERRA Leone, what do you think would enhance the business climate – what are the things that should be done in order to create an enabling environment for businesses successfully operate?

Infrastructure and Energy especially good road network. You need good roads if you want to apply to other areas and everything is not centered in Freetown. Investors will want to see what is there in places like Kono, Makeni, Kailahun, etc, we you need good roads for them to be able to transport goods and people. Again, Infrastructure in terms of Tourism, particularly good hotels are needed to help encourage business and tourism Sierra Leone.

 What are the main challenges of your institution in order to ensure that safety is there and that people are doing what they should be doing while driving?

Generally, Road safety is a collaborative effort. One agency cannot promote Road Safety without other key stakeholders. For our own case in Sierra Leone we need agencies like Roads Authority which is the main agency dealing with roads and infrastructure, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the Sierra Leone Police and also we need the legislative and judiciary to be part of it. We have done a lot as a country, when you compare Sierra Leone to our neighbouring country. I believe in the region, we are the only institution that has an agency that takes the lead in road safety. We do a lot of sensitisation because the roads were not like this before. For some areas, it was just a path. There was no road and they have not seen the fleets of cars plying in their community as it is now. So, they need to be sensitised on the way they should use the roads; we have been to schools, colleges, mosques, churches, right across the country. We have established road safety school clubs in our major schools across the country to sensitise people on the efficient use of the roads. We use the pupils/students in these clubs to be ambassadors to their peers in other schools. Because of what we are doing, we have received some supports from Total Petroleum International. They have supported us with some road safety school materials to further teach kindergarten’ schools. We also got some support from the Sierra Leone Brewery being a company that produces star beer, heineken, etc. They supported us with some breathalyzers to check alcohol consumption. We also have our weekly programmes where we sensitise drivers and do some amounts of Road Safety enforcements, because sensitisation without enforcement is zero. We give them the education and enforce the law. We have our Road Safety Enforcement wing, we call them Road Safety Corps even though the strength is not much. We are trying to deploy them right across the country. Also, since we are responsible for the issuance of vehicles and drivers licences We check to make sure that the  vehicles have the right licences before they come out on the roads.  

My role here is to regulate and coordinate activities in the transport sector including the registration and licensing of vehicles and drivers the prescription of routes for passenger and goods transportation, the promotion of road safety and any other matter connected thereto. We introduce vehicle maintenance garage last year (2016) just to lend a helping hand to the garages. We have so many garages in the country; but for most of the garages, from the survey that we have done,  are not adequately equipped to handle the recent/modern vehicles, especially the electronic vehicles. So, what we intend doing is to equipped our office garage and train mechanics and would-be mechanics. For those who already have their own garages, we give them refresher training and certificate at the end. We want to see how we can link up with other universities and technical institutions. We have written letters to an agency in UK that is really ready to partner with us. We also want to see how we can contribute to the middleman-power skills, particularly through the tertiary institutions. We found out that they go through the theoretical aspects, but most of them do not have the needed hands-on experience. That is why we are taking it up. Hence, it is not only the theoretical but we want to give them the practical aspect as well. It is an idea we came up with and we are building on it gradually. It is not fully operationalized yet, but we are determined to do so. In fact we are doing conversion of the motor vehicle from right to left hand drive, as there are very few mechanics in Sierra Leone who are doing it.

When I took office as Chief Executive Officer (i.e. Executive Director), our institution was called the Sierra Leone Road Transports (SLRTA). However, we have succeeded in changing the name from Sierra Leone Roads Transport to Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA). The main reason for this change is to promote road safety. Just calling road safety, speaks to the psyche of every citizen that we need to be road safety conscious. When you come here for your licences, you know that it is not just about going on the road but one needs to take effective care of his/her life and the lives of others. Even the Road Safety Corps used to be Traffic Wardens. We just thought it fit that we should bring this whole thing after the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety that was commissioned by Ban Ki-moon the former UN Secretary General. He commissioned it in 2011 and we started this campaign in 2013. Hence, list of activities have happened. Before now, there was nothing like road safety. What we intend doing this year is to change the driving licencing systems, the number plates among others. Definitely, desperately, and cautiously, we want to introduce the biometric, in other words modernising the institution, through advanced automatic motor vehicle management system.

What are the partnerships you looking at - Do you work with private institutions, including transport companies and others to help educate and train drivers?

Yes, we are doing that a lot. Last year we retrained all the UN drivers and Mechanics. It was about 86 of them representing the 13 agencies. We have just concluded the training of drivers in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, including mainly the ambulance drivers being 489 right across the country. We trained them in defensive driving, and not only the driving skills. We trained them also on basic maintenance for the ambulances. We know that the ambulances are always on high speed. We make sure we trained them on what they should check for before leaving for the roads. It is really a challenge, but we are taking it systematically at a time, it is not easy looking for funding. I will like to have support in capacity building for staffs, and  to have more safety gargets that will enhance the safety corps operation.

I have 374 workers and we have offices right across the country in the different regions of Sierra Leone. We have nine (9) offices and we are about to commission another four (4) at Magburaka, Kabala, Lunsar and Kailahun. For Kailahun we will do it at the end of January.

How can your institution make Sierra Leone a more attractive investment destination?

One thing I am looking forward to is to see how we can save more lives on the roads. There is a clip going around on social media about an accident that took place on the 8th January 2017 that claimed the lives of nine people on the spot and others are still dying at the hospital, so one major thing we need to do is to have emergency units at strategic point right across the country. We have done a survey where in we were able to identify all the black spot areas. This shows the need for emergency unit in all of these black spot areas, so they can respond as soon as possible in case an accident occurs. We are working towards a safe Sierra Leone through effective road safety promotion. The country has all what it takes for smooth investment. Come you will never regret it.

What are you most proud of – what is your biggest pride?   

I am proud of where we are today. The Government funds most of these institutions but we have our own revenue stream. There is not a time that our staffs have gone without payment of their salaries on time. I want to pride myself in my working environment and the developmental stride we are making. We are putting our new administrative block at Kissy African Road. This is because we want to leave these facilities strictly for training and other operational activities, where we have the vehicle maintenance and repair garage, bringing in students and train them. This will be like a hub for transporters, garages, mechanics, etc. Also, we have a team spirit with goal congruence being our focus.

What are your last words to our readers as to why they should come to Sierra Leone and invest?

Sierra Leone is a virgin ground and there’s lot to do here, come and you will not be disturbed. We are encouraging investors to come and invest. We are peaceful and investors are protected, business registration process is fast and virtually cost-less and the Government is very strongly committed to enforce the rule of law, particularly to ensure fair treatments for all, without any form of discrimination and stress.  Furthermore, Sierra Leoneans are very friendly, remarkably honest, reliable and peaceful.