By Foday Moriba Conteh
Fatmata Carew is the General Manager of the National Tourist Board (NTB), considered to be an important appendage of the country’s tourism sector.
As an agency that is directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, the National Tourist Board has ,over the years worked in close sync with the Ministry in order to ensuring that Government’s programmes, agendas and strategic plans and policies are effectively rolled out.
Dr Memunatu Pratt, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs informed this medium that the National Tourist Board is a key institution that is playing a major role in rebranding the country. She disclosed that as a result of sound managerial initiatives the NTB has created job opportunities for many people, especially young people, adding that when the tourism sector thrives according to their expectations the entity will be at a vantage position to do more in that area.
She continued by revealing how the NTB collaborates with the Directorate of Tourism and that of Culture at the Ministry to have synergy in their activities.
The Minister highlighted that Madam Carew has exemplified astute leadership in repositioning the sector underscoring that the National Tourist Board is now making headway in terms of product development, with nine touristic sites under development by the EIF and the World Bank.
She stated that though staff capacity is limited and budget allocated to the institution is limited ,however, the NTB has a committed staff and a very supportive Management team that are engrossed with implementing the UNDP and Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) programmes and their international programmes.
On his part, the Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh, expressed delight over working alongside the good leadership of the NTB which, according to him, is needed for any of the Ministry’s activity and project to succeed.
He disclosed how Domestic Tourism is now in vogue disclosing how more establishments are been disclosed, established and developed due to the support from the NTB leadership.
“Had it not been for COVID-19, the sector would be far gone, as many tourism policies have been developed. With the repositioning work being done by the Ministry and NTB, Sierra Leone is now ranked highly in the World Tourism market,” Mohamed Jalloh disclosed.
He furthered that NTB now has space both at local and international platforms to carry out their mandate that speaks to marketing Sierra Leone.
It must be noted that the NTB’s mandate is to develop and promote sustainable and responsible tourism activities in Sierra Leone that will foster viable economic growth; and to develop and promote sustainable and responsible tourism activities in Sierra Leone that will foster viable economic growth.
GM Fatmata Carew joined NTB in April 2005 and served as Marketing and Public Relations Officer and in 2009 Marketing and PR Manager. She became Deputy GM in 2015, following public recruitment process. She holds a post-graduate degree from the Institute of Public Administration & Management (USL) – Msc, Development Management – 2009 – 2011 and a BA Honors , Political Science from FBC – 2000 – 2004.
Her industry knowledge covers the fields of: Marketing, Public Relations, Management, Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Customer Service, Leadership. She also acquired a Diploma in Destination Marketing in 2008 and Diploma in Sustainable Tourism Development and Promotion in 2013.
