By Amin Kef Sesay
It has been attested by many that this medium has interacted with that the leadership of Dr. Turad Senesie at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning continues to raise high the flag of transparency, fairness and responsible governance in the lands sector in the eyes of the citizens and the international community, with most pointing at the latest move being the process of identifying Sierra Leoneans for allocation of plots of State land for residential purposes.
Unprecedentedly, the latest land raffle draw organized by the Lands Ministry turned a total of five hundred Sierra Leoneans from the civil service, security forces, medical sector, teaching field and journalism to become the newest set of landlords after winning the land raffle in which over four thousand applicants participated.
The raffle took place on May 12 2022 at the forecourt of Youyi Building in Freetown in the presence of representatives from the Anti-Corruption Commission, Parliament, Civil Society, Journalists, applicants and members of the general public.
The list of winners from the raffle is expected to be published this week after the auditors would have completed the verification process to ascertain and ensure that all the winners meet the eligibility criteria.
It could be recalled that the raffle application announcement invited Sierra Leoneans who have served in the sectors of security, civil service, medical, press and teaching for a period of at least five years.
The Land Raffle Model of allocation of State land to Sierra Leoneans was first introduced in December 2021, when the Ministry, for the first time in the history of land administration and management publicly announced the availability of 200 Plots of State land and invited members of the public to apply.
Over seven thousand Sierra Leoneans applied for that opportunity in December.
It has been agreed that the land raffle model has turned out to be the most transparent, fair and credible model to ensure Sierra Leoneans get easy access to land for various purposes.
