On Friday 1st March the Salone Job Fair 2019, organized by careers.sl in partnership with the National Youth Commission, Radisson Blu Hotel, Africell and Sierra Leone Brewery Limited, created an opportunity for many young unemployed Sierra Leoneans, including graduates to interact with many employers. This fair brought to the fore the glaring challenges of unemployment among young people, as hundreds of unemployed youths, queued at the Salone Job Fair 2019. Many young new graduates saw the event as their first chance to enter the employment world.
James Tamba Kallay graduated two weeks ago with Honors in Mass Communication, Fourah Bay College. He said, he was “eager to work”, adding that empowering young people was key to national development and self-empowerment.
Khadija is a graduate in Applied Accounting and has been employed since 2017 but looking forward to better opportunities. “I decided to come to the job fair to be exposed to other employers, she said.
She added that the job fair was full of experiences “I have learnt more how to prepare a CV because the CV is the first step of attracting an employer.”
She said, she had interacted with eight employers and saw opportunities in four institutions related to her field of study.
Deputy Commissioner, National Youth Commission, Emerson Kamara said “42% of the country’s population are young people with about 67% unemployed,” noting that the Salone Job Fair 2019 will provide access to employers and opportunities for employment to young people.
The Commission, he said, will partner with more organizations and build synergies with different sectors and tap into every opportunity for youths.
Orange Money Sierra Leone (the Company) wishes to inform its numerous customers and the general public that it recently undertook systems upgrade resulting to a change in the Orange Money platform. The upgrade is necessitated upon the need to improve customer experience, security and faster transactions on the use of Orange Money. The company is pleased to notify the general public that the new Orange Money platform guarantees the following: • Customers can now spend less time to send and receive money, pay bills, buy top up and data bundles. The steps for transaction has been shortened. • Customers can now save frequently used numbers to their Orange Money phonebooks to aid repeat transactions and reduce the risk of sending to wrong numbers • Customers can also check their Orange Money balance with ease. • Agents and Aggregators can now go online and check their daily transactions making the process more transparent and interactive. • Most importantly, the new platform provides a more user friendly interface with enhanced security features.
The company is aware that some of its valued customers may have experienced technical glitches in performing some Orange Money transactions after the system upgrade and registers its profound apology for this brief inconvenience. The public is reassured that a dedicated team of experienced staff are working round the clock to ensure all these technical glitches are addressed.
Orange Money Sierra Leone remains committed to providing the best mobile financial services in the market to meet every essential need of its customers. The Company will continue to provide a safe and secured means for its mobile financial services through an enhanced world class system for an unmatched experience.
Press contact:
Annie Wonnie Katta Head, Public Relations Orange (SL) Ltd annie.wonnie-katta@orange-sonatel.com +23276450194/+23276450189 25 Regent Road, Hill Station, P.O Box 75 https://www.facebook.com/orange.sierraleone/
Three weeks after the UBA group launched its operations in Mali, the global financial city of London hosted a high level gathering of business and public sector leaders on Thursday February 28, 2019, as the new UBA franchise, UBA UK was formally birthed in the United Kingdom amidst high expectations.
At the upscale ceremony which was held at The Prestigious Shard in the city of London, UBA UK was formerly introduced to business leaders across Europe and Africa with a commitment from the UBA Group of its readiness to galvanise trade and commerce between Europe and Africa.
The formal launch is sequel to the authorization of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for UBA UK Limited to carry out full scale wholesale banking across the United Kingdom.
With this launch, UBA Group further consolidates its unique positioning as the first and only Sub-Saharan African financial institution with banking operations in both the United Kingdom and the United States, thus reinforcing its strong franchise as Africa’s Global Bank, facilitating trade and capital flows between Africa and the world.
Speaking at the event, the Group Chairman, Mr. Tony Elumelu said the Group is excited by the authorization of the relevant regulatory authorities in the United Kingdom for UBA to upgrade its operation and further fulfil its aspiration of deepening trade and investment flows between Africa and Europe.
“The enhancement of our business in the United Kingdom is very timely and mutually beneficial for African and European corporates as well as respective governments. With the British and other European governments seeking new and improved measures to grow trade relations with Africa, we are enthusiastic on our positioning and capabilities in supporting corporate and government institutions to fulfil these lofty aspirations, which we believe are pertinent for the sustainable growth of both continents.”
Elumelu expressed that he is extremely pleased as UBA is living up to its mantra of being Africa’s global bank and positioning itself to support investors in key financial centres across the world.
Also speaking at the event, The Group Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, said “Simultaneously, we are serving the trade and capital needs of our African customers, who are seeking exposure to the European markets. With the upgrade of UBA UK Limited, we are excited to deepen our support to existing customers whilst also providing the leverage for new customers to effectively fulfil their cross-border transactions through UBA Group’s network.”
On his part, the CEO, UBA UK, Mr. Patrick Gutmann, said; “We are now on a stronger footing, as the authorization of the PRA and FCA for an enhanced business model affords us the opportunity to swell our capital and balance sheet as well as the broader UBA Group’s network across Africa. We welcome our existing and new customers to this new world of borderless opportunities, as we creatively serve our customers in meeting their international transaction needs.”
Some of the guests in attendance at the event were the President of Dangote Group; Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President; Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Oramah; Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, H.E Shaukat Aziz; Member of the British House of Lords and Executive Committee Member of the All Party Africa Group, Rt. Hon Lord Anthony Tudor St. John, amongst many others.
The event was not short on entertainment as one of Africa’s leading entertainers Dbanj performed to the admiration of guests including Star boy, Whiz Kid.
United Bank for Africa (UK) Limited, previously named UBA Capital (Europe) Limited offers a full suite of treasury services, cash management, correspondent banking, corporate lending and wholesale deposit products to professionals and eligible counterparties. In addition, UBA (UK) Limited offers all aspects of structured and trade finance; issuance, acceptance, confirmation and refinancing of Letters of Credit of different variations, including SBLCs.
Sierra Leone embarked on a new development trajectory on Thursday February 28th 2019 at the Bintumani Conference Hall in Aberdeen.
The auspicious moment which was chaired by Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh saw the launching of Sierra Leone’s new medium term National Development Plan.
The event attracted a cross section of distinguished and ordinary Sierra Leoneans including the Freetown City Mayor, traditional leaders, members of government, the public and students to witness the launching which has the theme: ‘Education for Development’.
Speaker after speaker congratulated the Minister of Economic Development and her team for their concerted effort in making the formulation of the NDP an all-embracive endeavor that incorporated all levels, regions and opinions of the country.
Summarized, the outlook of the NDP is to change Sierra Leone’s dismal narrative from underdevelopment to development encompassing eight key areas, but mainly human resource to facilitate dynamic scientific, technological, cultural, agricultural, industrial, economic development.
Presenting the NDP, which the Economic Planning and Development Minister, Nabila Tunis, called the People’s Plan, she said it is intended to transform Sierra Leone.
The participatory process which brought out the final document was launched in May 2018 and took in 2 million people including parliamentarians, political parties, civil society and lots of grassroots, men, women and youth organizations.
Its focus among other things is on inclusive rural economic development; infrastructure and economic development with sub clusters; governance and accountability for results; political inclusion for national development including the fight against corruption, promotion of human rights, public financial management; empowering women and persons with disabilities; youth employment and national environmental resilience.
To achieve the NDP, she said we need to journey together – collaborate, partner, work together.
Implementation she said will be based upon a well-defined and established monitoring and evaluation structure with a result framework, and the accompanying strategies for achieving the results in line with the SDGs and the AU Development Agenda.
The cost of implementing the plan over the next five years she said will cost US$8.1 billion, with the government providing US$6.8 billion; with us the citizens looked up to, to provide US$ each to fill in the shortfall funding.
Keynote speaker, His Excellency President Bio, reminded the audience of his policy statements to Parliament highlighting perceived development deficiencies and the need for a comprehensive blueprint for moving the country forward and that such a plan should be owned by us by being inclusive, consultative and domesticated result oriented NDP.
He applauded the Development Ministry for articulating the people centered plan which was funded by the Government, guided by the principle of leaving no voice behind including the Diaspora.
He outlined the factors that suffocate development and his Government’s solution to the rut that they inherited from the former that includes a culture of accountability, disciplined leadership, political will and commitment.
With tenacity and hard work, President Bio said as a nation we can achieve the NDP which will span over a 20 years period.
He called on donors to harmonize their assistance with the NDP to avoid duplication and wastage of resources – The end result of which will be wealth and job creation, especially for the youth.
After the launching of the Plan by His Excellency, the vote of thanks was given by a representative of the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture who promised that the private sector will work closely with the Government towards implementation of the NDP.
Henry Kerali,World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, on Wednesday 27th February, 2019 called at State House to assure His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio of the institution’s support to the New Direction Government.
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa, who chaired the meeting, said he was very encouraged by the interactions between the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance. He said the visit was a manifestation that the Bank was an important partner to the Government of Sierra Leone.
In his statement, Mr. Kerali said his visit to the country was a follow up on the discussions between President Bio and the World Bank regarding the Western Area Power Project that the Bank had cancelled before the elections. He also spoke the Bank’s potential support to the energy sector.
He also spoke on the Country Partnership Framework, the Bank’s strategy for Sierra Leone, adding that they wanted to make sure that their agenda could be aligned with Sierra Leone’s National Development Plan. He confirmed that the Bank would be increasing its support to the country, both in the form of soft loans and grants.
“His Excellency Sir, we will talk about the Human Capital Development which we know is very close to your hearth, the free quality education programme that you have introduced and also the healthcare projects. We believe we can support the Government with the rural roads and bridges project and we can proceed with some discussions on the business environment and how we can support that as well,” he said.
On his part, President Bio said he was happy to receive the visiting team once again into the country, adding that all the areas highlighted by the World Bank were of concern to his Government. He expressed frustration about the cancellation of the energy project but maintained that Government would look at the Country Partnership Framework to see how that could be restructured.
He assured that his Government would continue to encourage partners in the Human Capital Development as the flagship programme of the Government, adding that that was the only foundation to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and providing the opportunity for the country to start on the right footing.
“We are excited to hear more about the rural roads and bridges project and definitely the business climate is something we have to work on. As a Government, we want to make sure we create the right type of climate to attract the right investors. We are very excited about our partnership and we want to do everything possible to broaden our areas of cooperation and strengthen this relationship so that we can actually deliver the progress which we promised this nation,” he said.
When Dr. Walton E. Gilpin assumed office in mid-2017, after his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the Rokel Commercial Bank he posited, “My focus and interests are in developing the bank into the best banking institution in Sierra Leone and to see RC Bank grow beyond our shores.”
Prior to him heading the Bank the standing and performances of the bank for the past five years was abysmal propelling him to come with determination to inject fine initiatives that will overhaul the status quo by then.
Barely, six months when he took over affairs of the bank, the institution once again gained life and vibrancy, moved ahead to occupy an enviable position in terms of performances. Rokel Commercial Bank began to witness steady growth in fortunes, staff welfare and human capital development.
Turning things around in a positive direction became noticeable to such an extent that the customer base increased and old customers who were hesitant in depositing large sums of money into the bank began to have confidence in the bank.
It is indisputable to assert that Dr. Walton Gilpin, is one of Sierra Leone’s exemplary and sterling financial experts. He acquired his financial skills in the United Kingdom and United States of America, Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific holding several professional and academic qualifications. .He is a resourceful, self-motivated and professional economist with over 27 years of practical experience in banking, economic policy management, international development, public finance management, macroeconomic analysis, consulting, development economics and public debt management.
He returned home to serve his country in 2017. It was during this time that he was spotted and appointed to head the Rokel Commercial Bank..
The financial dinosaur hails from a humble background but through hard-work he rose to become a celebrated Sierra Leonean icon.
Being a compassionate and God-fearing person he saw the necessity for philanthropic work which led him to establish the GEED FOUNDATION formed in 2008, whose thematic area is empowerment of women and children through the award of scholarships to school going pupils and supporting women in commerce and skills development. The operations of the Foundation span from Bonthe, to Waterloo Community, Western Rural Area to Masiaka and Tonkolili in the North.
Commendably, Dr. Walton Gilpin revolutionized the bank culminating in boosting the bank’s investment portfolio and had made the bank to be in the forefront in the banking industry.
One of the reforms introduced include making use of a digital technology known as “SIM KOPOR” that has indeed brought banking to the doorstep of every individual in Sierra Leone. The bank with a team of dedicated staff who were ready to work in tandem with his twin banking philosophy of “Financial Discipline and Financial Inclusiveness” had brought the bank to a record profit level which had never been achieved by the bank.
Rokel Commercial Bank, under the astute leadership of Dr Gilpin, has been engaging students in financial discourse, through debates, lectures and quiz competitions all geared towards raising financial awareness and inclusion.
Dr. Ekundayo Gilpin intimated, “my idea of banking is branchless making use of digital technology.”
He has targeted the youth and believes that Sierra Leone deserves the best in Banking and Sierra Leoneans will deliver this to Sierra Leoneans.
His introduction of SIM Korpor was the first step in this direction and the Bank believes that with this innovation, the ordinary Okada rider, trader, street hawker, student, farmer, housewife and any other person who cannot access a bank easily to save money or to transact any other business now has the opportunity to do so through the RCB SIM Korpor service which would be available across Sierra Leone.
The bank launched the digital banking app in Bonthe Island late last year Residents of Bonthe Island were extremely delighted for the introduction of this new SIM KORPOR which they believe will ease the difficulty of collecting money sent through the banking system.
The performance of the bank was released early this year in February at its Annual General Meeting which was well attended by shareholders of the bank who were exceedingly happy at the figures of the Profit and Loss and the dynamism and zeal of the new Managing Director. The bank made over LE62bn Profit before Tax for the last Fiscal year. The bank was the second most profitable bank for the last fiscal financial year.
In recognition of these remarkable achievements by the bank and its management team the bank scooped 17 International and Local Awards from various reputable organizations for the last fiscal year, placing it the most awarded financial institution for the year.
There is no doubt that as long as Management is on-top of situation and rolling out sound financial initiatives Rokel Commercial Bank will continue to climb higher.
The National Petroleum (NP) SL Limited is an epitome of astute and admirable indigenous entrepreneurship which over the years has made commendable strides within the petroleum oil sector in the country. It turned out to be a truly successful business entity that has been contributing positively towards overall national economic development.
With a capable Board of Directors and Management at the helm of affairs NP-SL has contributed positively in the areas of job creation, timely payment of taxes to Government via the National Revenue Authority (NRA) as well as the steady and meaningfully execution of its Corporate Social Responsibility all improving standards of living.
If it for a very time now this country has not been experiencing fuel shortage then such could be largely attributed to the pro-active and sterling initiatives that the Board of Directors and Management at NP have been implementing with regards timely procurement of the petroleum products and making such available on the market for public consumption.
It is highly commendable for a well-established and result-oriented company like NP to have climbed to such an enviable position especially when cognizance is taken of the fact that it is exclusively owned by Sierra Leonean shareholders, a typical testimony of how local entrepreneurs could raise the bar high.
Going down the annals of history the former British Petroleum Company decided to sell its shares to the Government of Sierra Leone that was in Governance at that material period of time.
Things took a different twist when in 1996 the Government sold its 60% shares in NP to some of the company’s members of staff. Again it was made known that 55 % was paid upfront from the end of service benefits of the workers from BP and the 5% offered to all the other workers. Thus the company known as LEONEOIL was born.
The 55% sale of Government shares to NP came as a result of the World Bank’s advice to privatize the latter. It was also revealed that among the 4 companies that bided, which included ELF, LEONOIL won the international competitive bidding conducted by Arthur De Little, a United States based Management consultancy firm hired by the World Bank.
It could be recalled that the World Bank, which advised Government to privatize NP, monitored the bidding process for the three international companies and one local company that competed culminating to LEONEOIL, which metamorphosed to NP, meeting all the set criteria.
Financial experts whom the Calabash Newspaper had the privilege to talk with noted that the aforementioned members of staff were indeed entrepreneurial enough to properly manage the company to such an extent that, unlike others, it survived most of the bottlenecks that it encumbered throughout the years it has been in existence.
Shedding light on the historical background of NP, it came out glaringly that the 40% PMMC’s stake in the company, owned by the late Jamil Sahid Mohammed and Tony Yazbeck, was given as collateral for a loan from a Bank by one of the parties.
The business mogul, Jamil Sahid Mohammed, later sold to Cape Oil PMMC’s 40% shares to offset a fidelity loan but LEONE OIL was not satisfied with that move and took the matter to court saying it was in violation of the M and A which dictates that the other side has the first option to buy. The outcome of the matter was that the High Court gave judgement in favour of Leone oil.
For mischievous reasons certain individuals have been churning out rumours that NP has a monopoly over the petroleum market in the country which is totally untrue, baseless and misleading as it has been factually proven that there are other Marketing Companies marketing petroleum products that are registered with the Petroleum Agency.
It must be noted that Petro-Leone is a storage company developed by both Addax and Leone Oil so that petroleum products will always be available in the country and avert shortage. Experts further state that if such a venture is disrupted the country will relapse to the former state of shortage of fuel and long queues will once more re-surface across the country causing a lot of inconvenience and national hiccups.
At present, NP-SL has filling stations in different parts of the country with other facilities like tire mending, mini marts and sale of gas in some of them. The company was also established in neighbouring Liberia offering various petroleum and other related services.
It can be asserted that the National Petroleum Limited is one that has grown by leaps and bounds. The company is an embodiment of sterling local entrepreneurship that is worthy of emulation.
It has been confirmed that during the coming weekend, 3rd March 2019, certain Housemates, out of the current 22, presently in the House will be evicted thereby reducing the number that will remain. Indeed, it is going to be a very emotional and fateful moment for those who will be affected shattering their dreams of emerging successful at the end of the competition.
For now the Housemates are somehow jittery and nervous as they are in suspense not knowing how it is going to turn out to be. However, they are doing their best in terms of projecting strong language, nudity and humour further using every given opportunity to appeal to their fans and the wider citizenry here and abroad to vote for them using their tagged numbers to be texted to Africell Code Number 5500.
One thing that is very certain is that Housemates Salone offers the Housemates the opportunity to be empowered and after leaving the House they will definitely never be the same again but become different persons. To justify this assertion the TV Reality Show, organised by the Africa Young Voices (AYV) and Africell , provides the platform for social interaction leading to strengthening relationships, self-expression as is evident in responding to questions posed by the unseen Chief, taking through lectures by professional experts, portraying artistic skills whether in acting, poetry or modelling.
This rather unique event is now the talk of the town. AYV and Africell’s Housemates Salone 2019 has earned the name of an epitome of Reality.
What would determine the position that the various contestants will individually occupy largely depends on the percentage of votes that each will scoop from the populace but the evictions hinge on their performances in the House which are closely monitored and judged.
The attractive star winning prize of Le100, 000,000 is what each competitor is eyeing but for each day a Housemate stays in the House he or she is entitled to receive Le100, 000.
With the huge and electrifying momentum that the Housemates Salone is ascending it has currently become the widely talked about event in the country and has indeed gone viral. Workers, school pupils, students, market women and traders are heatedly discussing it in different circles, even in Ataya Bases, with candour and varying views.
Sustained investigations cum research mounted in different parts of the country revealed that the majority are really commending the organizers of the TV Reality Show, African Young Voices (AYV) and Africell for packaging and rolling out what they described as a very extra-ordinary and breath-taking entertainment show.
Indeed, the House is getting hotter as the competitors are tensely battling to ultimately emerge as the winner to bag the Le100, 000,000 that is at stake.
But what is so good about rolling out this show is that it has really exposed all the participants and there is the probability that people cum investors could be interested in making use of their talents, be it in the music, acting, film industries or in modelling.
“It is indeed very good that the organisers of this TV Reality contest made provision for empowerment and for those that have been and will be evicted to at least take home financial packages which will serve as a therapy to any unforeseen psychological anguish. To those that will be affected take heart and be courageous as there is more goodies in life after Housemates Salone,” Ann-Marie Williams, an activist shuttling to and fro the USA and Sierra Leone enthused.
Housemates Salone continues to thrill millions in and out Sierra Leone.
The Right to Access Information and Communication (RAIC) on the 28th February 2019 engaged the media in order to update practitioners on its recent, activities and mandate since it was recently re-vitalized.
In his statement Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, who is the Chairman and Information Commissioner of the Right to Access to Information Commission (RAIC), pointed out that with support from the World Bank through the Public Finance Management, Improvement and Consolidation project (PFMICP) in the Ministry of Finance on December 6, 2018 launched the Proactive Disclosure of information (PDI) component of the law that governs all public authorities and the immediate support of the development of publication schemes for 10 pilot Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
He noted that specifically in part 2 Section 8 (1), the Act delineates 22 minimum classes of information identified that will form the core pro-active publication scheme for every public authority in the country.
Seaga Shaw disclosed that in his speech during a Pro-active Disclosure forum in December and another workshop held in January he appealed to participants to tale the message of the March 1st deadline to the various institutions they represent and encouraged them to comply.
He informed journalists present to popularize the message.
Representing the Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, the Deputy Information Minister, Solomon Jamiru, highlighted that the VP has notified all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to submit their proactive publication schemes to the RAIC on or before 1 st March 2019 for approval.
According to the Deputy Minister, failure to do so will incur an invitation to the RAIC tribunal and there are penalties to be levied.
“The pro-active publication scheme is consistent with the new Government’s call for enhanced transparency, accountability and good governance for all public authorities and limited to MDAs by implementing the law as enacted by Parliament,” Jamiru underscored.
With the massive turn out of football loving fans across the country, millions of Leones has been generated in the first few matches of the Sierra Leone Premier League competition. This means for the first time in the history of football in Sierra Leone clubs are smiling to the banks with huge deposits of cash to run their day to day activities.
Mighty Blackpool has raked in over Le150.000.000 from hosting just two matches. Other teams have raked in over Le30 to Le60 millions. From all the games played so far and the statistics coming in though Mighty Blackpool gained one point from three matches so far they are the biggest crowd pullers. If this trend continues then arguably it is safe to say that either Mighty Blackpool has the biggest fan base in Sierra Leone or the majority of football fans love to watch them play.
Meanwhile, the Freetown City Football Club is yet to contract and pay the salaries of their payers according to the Public Relation Officer, Mr. Abdullah Nazzra Bundu, adding the turnout of fans and spectators in their previous matches was very poor due to the unprecedented trials at the moment.
“We are working towards the Bamoi Declaration of 2010, the player and technical officials must be contracted for international best practices, the club is bigger the everybody, we need to respect the career of the players and the officials if we are want to win our pending matches, we are disappointed with the attitude of the management at present” he said.
In his closing remarks, he said that the Premier League Board should investigate the day-to-day actives of the club base on the seed money given to the executive of the Freetown City Council Club for the phase of the league season.
