By Mary Kabay
Kingho Mining Company Limited has on the 29th July 2021, during a Press Conference held at the Harry Yansaneh Hall on Campbell Street showcased the company’s 2nd Quarter 2021 Community Development Action Plan (CDAP) Projects.
Judith Boi Kosseh, the Director of Community Affairs, Kingho Investment Company Limited intimated newsmen that
Kingho Mining Company Limited and Kingho Rail and Port Company Limited are subsidiaries of Kingho Investment Company Limited.
She disclosed that Kingho Mining Company Limited is currently carrying out mining operations in Sambaia, Dansogoia and Simiria chiefdoms respectively in Tonkolili District Northern Sierra Leone.
On the other hand, according to her, Kingho Railway and Port Company Limited operates the 192-kilometer rail services from the mines sites in Tonkolili to the sea port at Pepel in Kamasondo Chiefdom, Port Loko District for onward shipments.
She said as a group, they take community engagement and environmental issue very seriously maintaining that is why they set up a specialist Directorate to work closely with stakeholders and communities at large to ensure that their operations do not negatively affect their normal livelihood but also provide an opportunity for developments.
“The Directorate of Community Relations at Kingho has developed an internal program to help build the capacity of staff in dealing with the very important aspect of our operation,” she further disclosed adding that based on the EPA statutory provisions, they recently developed a Community Development Action Plan (CDAP).
She said the company takes that mandate from Government seriously continuing that in order to implement that, they organized training for their Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) covering all areas of operations on planning and implementation of the CDAP Projects.
Judith Boi Kosseh stated that the aim of the Press Conference is to discuss the 2nd quarter report of Kingho’s activities in those communities and to demonstrate how they have been complying as a company.
“Over the past three months we have undertaken several projects using Chiefdom based structure through the Chiefdom Representative Committees (CRC) set up in Chiefdoms we are operating,” she stated that those chiefdoms are Simiria, Dansogoia and Sambaia in Tonkolili District and Kamasondo in Port Loko District.
She intimated that the committees membership are selected from their various Chiefdoms but each committee also include two staff from Kingho to provide support and technical guidance on monitoring, planning and implementation process of CDAP projects.
“We are closely monitoring this new model to see how effective it will be for sustainable implementation of our projects,” she furthered adding how amidst COVID-19 they took great caution on their community engagement programs to comply with Government procedures.
She said, however, they have carried out several projects in the past three months. According to her, with recommendations from the four CRC, they launched massive agriculture projects to support women farmers.
That support, she informed, came at the time when the communities were preparing for this year’s planting season saying assorted farm tools were provided to women in those chiefdoms and a lot of women farmers came out in their numbers to show their support and appreciation maintaining that the farming tools will boost their livelihood and sustenance.
The Director of Community Affairs revealed how Kingho undertook rehabilitation and modernization of the only referral health centre in Kamasondo chiefdom.
She said consequent to the growing population as a result of the company operations in Pepel, hospital attendance has increased to about 300 patients per month, 30 deliveries and 20 admissions on average.
“We also provided the Pepel Health Centre with mattresses and beddings, undertook the rehabilitation of the Pepel Health Centre with the hope to encourage utilization of the medical facility available in the chiefdom and to further reduce infant and maternal mortality rate by 80%,” she stated.
She also mentioned the rehabilitation of a dilapidated school in Kegbema Community stating how the school is closer to the New Tonkolili Iron Ore (TIO) gate from Bumbuna, which according to her, was in a very bad shape and needed an urgent attention.
The Director narrated how children in nearby communities had to walk for miles to access improved schools in other towns saying the rehabilitation means that the Kegbema School will provide safe and habitable learning environment for hundreds of children in the mining community.
She also dilated on the construction of a roundabout at Mabontho Town, the headquarters of Simiria Chiefdom maintaining that the significance of the project is to help control traffic and minimize accidents in the largest town in Simiria Chiefdom.
Judith Boi Kosseh talked about the construction of a culvert at the main crossing drainages in Bendugu Town, the Chiefdom headquarters of Sambaia.
“The company takes it Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) very seriously,” she said with pride saying that collectively, within the past three months, Kingho Mining and Kingho Railway and Port sponsored football galas in honour of Sierra Leone’s 60th Independence Anniversary in all its operational communities.
She added that as part of their corporate social responsibility, they also did Ramadan food distribution in both Pepel and Tonkolili operational areas.
She said in joining the Government in their fight against coronavirus disease, they distributed preventive kits also revealing how they also donated cows to their operational chiefdoms as part of the Eid-Al-Adha celebration.
“Individually, Kingho Mining Company also undertook the payment of our surface rents of 400 Million Leones to our three (3) mining communities, whilst Kingho Railway and Port Company undertook community sensitization, stakeholder engagement and conflict resolution in the Pepel Port area and all the railway corridor communities,” she stated.
“We are hopeful that that our CDAP and CSR Plans which were developed together with the community shall remain sustainable and provide collective ownership of delivered project,” she expressed optimism.
The Director of Community Affairs concluded by stating that all those activities and many more planned are demonstration of their commitment in fulfilling their obligations and to be considered a serious and credible partner towards the socio-economic development of Sierra Leone as a nation, whilst directly impacting positively on the livelihood of communities in their operational areas.
Other speakers made salient contributions. A question and answer session climaxed the conference.
