A delegation of potential investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is in Sierra Leone as part of a fact finding mission.
The delegation headed by the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for International Development Affairs, Sultan Al Shamsi, has been holding talks with government officials, including President Julius Maada Bio. A statement from the Presidency in Freetown said the visit was a follow-up to President Bio’s visit to the Gulf State last month.
In March President Bio led a delegation of Government Ministers on a state visit and held talks with officials, including the Emir, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A State House release quoted President Bio as saying that his meeting with the Emir resulted to the visit.
“When we last visited the UAE in search of investment opportunities, Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE assured me that he would send a delegation to Sierra Leone for this said purpose. I didn’t expect it to happen so soon,” Bio said, noting that Sierra Leone was looking for credible investors who would explore the many opportunities of the country through their various interests and assured of their protection.
Chief Minister Professor David Francis also told the delegation that Sierra Leone is an emerging destination of choice for Africa and other developed countries, noting that under the leadership of President Bio the Government would ensure that all investors and their investments were protected.
According to Al Shamsi, key areas of interest for his delegation were agriculture, education, energy, health, women’s empowerment through job creation and the empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises.
“It is very promising and important coming here to Sierra Leone to partner with the Government and find ways the two countries can make investment better. One thing that is important and fundamental here is the commitment by the Government to protect investors and their
investments,” he said.

Sierra Leone on Thursday 12th April 2019 bade farewell to 160 troops which departed Freetown on Sunday, April 14, for Somalia.
The men and women constitute the second contingent of the reform peacekeeping operation system since Sierra Leone began participating in international peacekeeping, officials said.
Superintendent John Tumbay, Head of the Department of Peacekeeping at the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), said until now the country had been sending individual police officers in peacekeeping operations.
He said the new system now means they will be deploying ‘Formed Police Unit,’ which comprises a contingent of armed personnel with medical units, including nurses and doctors and the use of armoured vehicles.
Sierra Leonean police officers are currently deployed in three security hotspots: 22 in Darfur as part of the United Nations and African Union Hybrid Operation – UNAMID; 12 in South Sudan under UNMISS; and a total of 192 officers, including 33 individual officers in Somalia under the African Union mission called AMISOM.
The new contingent which is set to depart this Sunday will be replacing the 159 troops who are expected back home on April 17, after serving a year in the restive Horn of Africa country.

A veteran Nollywood actor and former Chairman of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Mr. Zack Orji and Emma Oyilogu paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rahman Swarray at his Youyi Building office in Freetown.
The purpose of the visit according to the Director of Next Movie Star, Sierra Leone Limited (NMS) Mr. Mohamed James Kamara is to enhance the campaign and awareness raising effort of government through movie on the eradication of rape and sexual violence against girls and women in the country.
Welcoming the film stars on behalf of Government and the people of Sierra Leone the Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rahman Swarray underscored the long-standing bilateral relations between Sierra Leone and the Federal Republic of Nigeria paying tribute for the numerous assistances rendered by Nigeria in the good and bad times of the country’s history including the civil war, Ebola and Mud-slide among other issues. The support to Sierra Leone by the veteran Nollywood Film Stars will serve as a platform for mentoring and coaching of the numerous Sierra Leonean talents in the film industry. This will create an enabling environment for them to realize their full potentials, he added.
The Minister assured the veteran Nollywood film stars of his Ministry’s fullest support to their shooting venture in Sierra Leone.
According to Mr. Zack Orji, they are in Sierra Leone to work with the Next Movie Star, Sierra Leone Limited (NMS) to produce a 52 Episodic Movie – ‘Who You Are’ a serial movie to enhance the campaign against poetic justice, sexual assault and to protect women and girls from being raped.
Present were the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication, Solomon Jamiru Esq; the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Augustine S. Sheku and other officers from the Ministry.

On April 10, 2019, a grand ceremony was held in Xiamen to mark the delivery of 50 Golden Dragon buses to Sierra Leone. The 50 buses, including 15 units of 7-meter city buses, 25 units of 8-meter city buses and 10 units of 9-meter city buses, are equipped with advanced technologies and more customized features, fully meeting the local operation requirements.
Sadiq Silla, Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Paul Tucker, Deputy General Manager of Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation, Huang Chun, President of Fujian Automobile Industry Group, Qiu Zhixiang, King Long Moror Group, Peng Dongqing, Xiamen Golden Dragon Van Co., Ltd., together with a number of other distinguished guests witnessed the historic ceremony.
According to Golden Dragon, it signed a sales agreement of 200 buses with Sierra Leone in Xiamen in late August, 2018, just a few days before China-Africa Cooperation Forum.
After the delivery of the first batch of 50 buses, the rest of 150 units Golden Dragon buses will soon be delivered to the country for operation. After their arrival in Sierra Leone, they will be put into operation in Freetown.
Powered by diesel engines, the 50 Golden Dragon buses are equipped with advanced transmission gearboxes and front and rear axles. During the designing and manufacturing process, the bus maker took Freetown’s road and weather conditions into full consideration, such as optimizing the vehicles’ structures, increasing their chassis height, improving their anti-corrosive performance, etc.
In addition, a number of travel amenities are available on board, providing more travel comforts for passengers.
To ensure the smooth operation of all Golden Dragon buses, the bus maker will send a team of service engineers to Sierra Leone to provide training sessions and after-sales services for the local bus operator.

Sunday 14th April, 2019 was the grand finale of the most-watched and talked about Housemates Sierra Leone 2019 TV Reality Show organized by Africa Young Voices (AYV) Media Empire and Sierra Leone’s biggest telecom provider Africell. The event which was held at the prestigious Bintumani Hotel conference hall was graced by eminent personalities including the First Lady Fatima Bio, actors from Nigeria, Ghana and elsewhere among many other personalities.
At the end of the exciting episode full of celebration, stage performance, drama and lots more, Kenchine Palmer and Monica Yeani Ghaliwa emerged the last standing couple of Housemates S/Leone 2019.
Kenchine Palmer was crowned the winner with 26.29% of the votes cast, while Monica Yeani Ghaliwa scored 22.81% to emerge second. Ibrahim Shehab got 21.15%, Dylis George 13.73%, Suad Kamara 9.66%, and Henry Fornah 6.35%.
Housemates Salone is without dispute the most watched television reality show ever in the history of Sierra Leone as it generated millions of fans from across the world. The show was staged with the purpose of unearthing youthful potentials in a process of learning and also empowering them through entertainment.
Kenchine who is nicknamed ‘Dizzy West’ is popularly known for being a rapper which he demonstrated two years ago on the AYV Cypher Uncensored, representing Team One Heart Nation. He is also from the streets and at an early stage in his life he lost both parents. But regardless of the unfortunate situation he kept pushing for greener pastures.
Monica was presented with a cheque of Le50,000,000 as runner-up of Housemates Sierra Leone.
All the Housemates did their best individually to capture the attention of members of the public to get their votes but only one has emerged the lucky winner.
The organizers of the 2019 Housemates Salone Contest, Africa Young Voices (AYV) Empire and Africell have both made their mark in staging such a spectacular TV Reality show. Both have once more demonstrated the strong commitment to provide a platform to unlock and tap the potentials of young talents across the country.
Ambassador Anthony Navo Junior, Chief Executive Officer of AYV is held in high esteem for continuing to raise the bar high for youth from all walks of life. Incontestably, he is an icon in his own right which is why he continues to bag prestigious awards in and out of the country.
Africell, the leading telecommunication company in the country has been supporting youthful initiatives and is poised to continue in that direction.

In his brief remarks, Ambassador Navo told his massive audience that without any doubt AYV and Africell delivered the biggest reality TV show in the country’s history. He said: ‘It is about bringing people together in the spirit of a united Sierra Leone and it is also about engaging and empowering role models.’

DHL has launched an e-commerce app called DHL Africa eShop for global retailers to sell goods to Africa’s consumer markets.
The platform went live recently and brings more than 200 U.S. and U.K. retailers — from Neiman Marcus to Carters — online in 11 African markets: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
DHL Africa eShop will operate using start-up Mall for Africa.com’s white label service, Link Commerce. Payment methods will include local fintech options, such as Nigeria’s Paga and Kenya’s M-Pesa.
The announcement comes as e-commerce in Africa has seen some ups and downs — with online sales start-up Jumia announcing an IPO, while several Africa digital retail ventures have recently faltered.
DHL Africa eShop takes advantage of the shipping giant’s existing delivery structure on the continent, able to get goods to doorsteps near and far through its DHL Express shipping, tracking and courier service.
DHL’s partner for the new app, Mall for Africa, has experience collaborating with DHL and a number of big-name retailers, including Macy’s and Best Buy. Backed by Helios Investment Partners, MFA was founded in 2011 to solve challenges global consumer goods companies face when entering Africa.
Mall for Africa’s payment and delivery system serves as a digital broker and logistics manager for U.S. retailers that come online with the start-up to sell their goods to African consumers.
DHL has been a Mall for Africa logistics partner since 2015, and in 2018, the two teamed up to launch MarketPlaceAfrica.com — an e-commerce site for select African artisans to sell their goods in any of DHL’s 220 delivery countries.
For DHL Africa eShop, Mall for Africa’s Link Commerce service will facilitate local payments, procurement and delivery, Mall for Africa CEO Chris Folayan said.
“That’s what our service does. It takes care of that whole ecosystem to enable global e-commerce to exist, no matter what country you’re in,” he added.
In a statement, DHL Express CEO for Sub-Saharan Africa referred to the DHL Africa eShop app as something that “provides convenience, speed, and access to connect African consumers with exciting brands.” The DHL Africa app is also intended to fill a commercial void, according to DHL, as many U.S. and U.K. retailers do not ship to Africa.
E-commerce ventures, particularly in Nigeria, have captured the attention of VC investors looking to tap into Africa’s growing consumer markets. McKinsey & Company projects consumer spending on the continent to reach $2.1 trillion by 2025, with African e-commerce accounting for up to 10 percent of retail sales.
As mentioned, Africa’s e-commerce startup landscape has seen its own ups and downs. Pan-African e-commerce start-up Jumia’s recent IPO filing on the NYSE is a first for any start-up from Africa. Mall for Africa has also continued to expand into new countries, now operating in 17, with partners, such as DHL.
On the flip side, the distressed acquisition of Nigerian e-commerce hopeful Konga.com, backed by roughly $100 million in VC, created losses for investors. And in late 2018, Nigerian online sales platform DealDey shut down.
On a B2C level, DHL Africa eShop brings distinct advantages on a transaction cost basis (i.e. the cost of delivery) given it is connected to one of the world’s logistics masters, DHL.
Another component of DHL and Mall for Africa’s partnership is the market for offering e-commerce fulfilment services through Mall for Africa’s white label Link Commerce service.
This could put the duo on a footing to compete with (or work with) big e-commerce names entering Africa and adds another layer of competition with Jumia, which offers its own fulfilment services vertical in Africa.
As for the big global names, Alibaba has talked about Africa expansion, but for the moment has not entered in full.
Amazon offers limited e-commerce sales on the continent, but more notably, has started offering AWS services in Africa.
It could certainly serve as a new player in African e-commerce phase 2.0, now that the sector has shaken out some failures, produced an IPO and drawn the attention of big global names.

It will be recalled that in our last edition dated 15th April 2019 we published a story captioned “Government Urged to Probe Qnet” in which it was insinuated that the company is operating a scheme that is cunningly duping unsuspecting Sierra Leoneans of their hard earned money by giving them the impression that it will multiple them but such never transpires. Furthermore, it was alleged that individuals are fooled to register with the company by paying Le 6,500.000 and bring onboard more members with the view that compliance will put a new member at a vantage position to reap fruitful rewards. After a thorough investigation was mounted it was discovered the aforementioned claims are totally erroneous and misleading.
It was understood from that in-depth investigation that QNET pledges to give the direct selling industry the best and most professional representatives in each region in which it does business. “We are the pioneers and the voice for the direct selling industry in many emerging economies and we take that responsibility serious. Our mission is to educate, inform and train our Independent Representatives to uphold the highest standards in conducting business. As aspiring entrepreneurs, they are not just building a business that helps them become financially independent; they are leading a wave of change,” an official pf the company disclosed to this medium.
Under #QNETPRO they conduct training programs and online seminars, create awareness through social media campaigns and videos, provide educational materials through online and offline channels, and help instill in their distributors a sense of pride for being at the forefront of a thriving industry.
Focused on training new and existing Independent Representatives (IRs), the company’s dedicated group of professional network marketing trainers travel the world to conduct on-ground trainings to advocate the principles of building a powerful and sustainable direct selling business in a responsible manner. These trainings support their pledge to give the direct selling industry the smartest, exceptionally professional, and most successful distributors the industry will be proud to call their own.
QNET believes in walking the talk. At this time, when the direct selling industry is becoming a profession of choice in many emerging economies, it is important to set high standards. In the last 3 years, QNET has terminated numerous IRs in more than 30 countries for non-compliance, policy violations, or unethical practices.
Direct selling is a growing and exciting industry that provides companies an alternative channel for the distribution and sale of products and/or services directly to customers, away from a traditional retail location. The industry uses a variety of distribution methods; multilevel marketing and network marketing being two of it.
The rise of the emerging middle class market, technological innovations and a relaxing of restrictions on capitalism has triggered a major growth in this industry. As more people begin to discover the benefits of a market-based economy, entrepreneurism has flourished.
QNET offers a well-researched and carefully developed array of exclusive products that are purchased by our customers all over the world through our secure, robust and reliable online store.
The company has three main categories of customers:
Retail Customers – The ones that regularly purchase our products but do not join the business aspect of direct selling.
Potential IRs – The ones who purchase our products and enroll themselves in the business opportunity.
Existing IRs – The ones who regularly purchase our products while building a thriving network marketing business.
It was further learnt that the company’ mission is to contribute to the global community through the daily application of RYTHM – Raise Yourself To Help Mankind. They do that by helping individuals achieve their goals and lead better lives through a combination of an entrepreneurial business opportunity with life-enhancing products.

QNET’s products and services have the overarching goal of making complete wellbeing accessible to all. By wholeheartedly joining QNET, individuals help achieve a balanced life with a healthier body, mind, and spirit.

Ever since Sierra Leone turned to the IMF in the late 1970s for deficit financing assistance, due to financial mismanagement of what the country has, coupled with the fact that Government woefully failed to build a very robust, dynamic export sector, the country has ever since been doomed to adverse balance of trade, and its inherent currency devaluation and inflation that goes with it.
How the New Direction Government which has promised to provide efficient political and economic management of the State and its resources would eventually make the difference between whether the value of the Leone keeps falling and whether inflation will continue to defy control.
To the point this commentary intends to make…How will the Government work in the immediate coming years to dramatically improve on the country’s balance of trade?
A country’s balance of trade is defined by its net exports (exports minus imports) and is thus influenced by all the factors that affect international trade. These include factor endowments and productivity, trade policy, exchange rates, foreign currency reserves, inflation and demand.
A crucial point to note is both goods and services are counted for exports and imports, as a result of which a nation has a balance of trade for goods (also known as the merchandise trade balance) and a balance of trade for services. A nation has a trade surplus if its exports are greater than its imports; if imports are greater than exports, the nation has a trade deficit.
Factor Endowments
Factor endowments include labor, land and capital. Labor describes the characteristics of the workforce. Land describes the natural resources available, such as iron ore, diamond, gold, bauxite, coffee, cocoa, timber or oil. Capital resources include infrastructure and production capacity. The Heckscher-Ohlin model of international trade emphasizes differences in these areas to explain trade patterns. For example, a country with an abundance of unskilled labor produces goods requiring relatively low-cost labor, while a country with abundant natural resources is likely to export them.
The productivity of those factors is also important. For example, suppose two countries have the same amount of labor and land endowments. However, one country has a skilled labor force and highly productive land resources, while the other has an unskilled labor force and relatively low-productivity resources. The skilled labor force can produce relatively more per person than the unskilled force, which in turn influences the types of work in which each can find a comparative advantage.
This explains the difference between Singapore and Sierra Leone; with Sierra Leone having all the natural resources that Singapore has not got but Singapore has a per capita income that is now approaching US$60, 000! – Whilst that of Sierra Leone is about US$500.
Trade Policies
Generally, barriers to trade also affect the balance of exports and imports for a given country. Nations that are insular and have restrictive trade policies such as high import tariffs and duties may have larger trade deficits than countries with open trade policies, since they may be shut out of export markets because of these impediments to free trade.
There are also non-tariff barriers to trade. A lack of infrastructure is a notable one, as it can increase the relative cost of getting goods to market. This increases the price for those products and reduces a nation’s competitiveness on the global market, which in turn reduces exports. Investment can work to reduce these barriers. For example, investments in infrastructure can increase a nation’s capital base and reduce the price of getting goods to market.
Foreign currency reserves:
To compete effectively in extremely competitive international markets, a nation has to have access to imported machinery that enhances productivity, which may be difficult if forex reserves are inadequate.
Inflation:
If inflation is running rampant in a country, the price to produce a unit of a product may be higher than the price in a lower-inflation country. This would affect exports, affecting the trade balance.
Generally, the balance of trade is a key indicator of a nation’s health. In general, investors and market professionals appear more concerned with trade deficits than trade surpluses, since chronic deficits may be a precursor to currency devaluation.