By Amin Kef Sesay
His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has on the 23rd November, 2020 presented a cheque of over Le 9 billion to the Skills Development Fund to initially benefit over 1,660 citizens in the Kenema and Kailahun Districts, East of the country.
Paramount Chief of Njaluahun Chiefdom, James Sheriff Coker-Jajua, expressed joy for receiving the President but most importantly for the launch of the skills development fund in his chiefdom that would support middle-level manpower through technical education.
“I am humbled to welcome you all to Njaluahun Chiefdom and to tell you that the Free Quality Education has really helped the poor people of this country,” he stated.
Member of Parliament for Constituency 008, Honourable Wuyata Bernadette Songa, thanked the President for the opportunity given to her people to host the launch for the Skills Development Fund in Njaluahun Chiefdom. She noted that such an initiative would go a long way to strengthen and deepen the foundation of the Free Quality Education.
She, therefore, encouraged the people of the district, particularly the youth to take good care of such an opportunity, which she said would help the middleman power.
Minister of Tertiary and Higher Education, Professor Aiah Gbakima, said the project is in partnership with the World Bank and that it would cater for those students who couldn’t get requirements to enter universities and colleges. He said with those skills training centres like carpentry, tailoring, mechanics and others, the development fund would have targeted about 8,000 beneficiaries by 2023.
“This exercise went through extended inter-agency partnerships. I thank all partners, including the World Bank,” he concluded.
Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa, told the gathering that it was a Government of Sierra Leone owned project, but partnered with the World Bank to implement the first phase in the East of the country.
“The World Bank has seen the political will of this administration to make education accessible to everyone in the country. And this skills development initiative is in line with the 2018 manifesto of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party Government,” he stated.
Minister Saffa also noted that the Skills Development Fund had over 120 billion that would span through 2024, adding that the more funding the programme got the more their Government would extend the implementation to other districts.
His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio said that he is happy to be in Njaluahun, particularly in Segbewema, where the people were always very excited to welcome him as one of their own.
“My visit here today is to launch the Skills Development Fund and to show that my Government values education. Education should be treated seriously because it is the only means to lasting development,” he said.
He continued by saying that the Fund would incorporate those who could not make it to universities and colleges, thereby making them very useful for nation-building. He admonished the youth of the district to take their education seriously because he believes that education is a universal key that would unlock every door.
“Education is good for nation-building and for personal development. Therefore, I urge you all to make every effort to support this programme. The future ahead of us is very challenging and it is only education that will prepare us all for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I now have the honour to launch the Skills Development Fund, to help foster education,” he concluded.
In another development on Saturday 21 November 2020, His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio commissioned the very first fire station in the township of Kailahun since the National Fire Service Act of 1980 that set forth provisions relating to the hiring and employment of firemen in Sierra Leone.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Sylvester Momoh Taluva, expressed gratitude to the President and his Government and disclosed that the office is the first fire station in the district. As of the 2015 census, the district had a population of 525,372.
On Sunday 21 November 2020 President Bio turned the sod for the construction of an ultra-modern hospital in the Jojoima township, the chiefdom headquarter of Malema Chiefdom in the Kailahun District.
Welcoming the entourage, Paramount Chief Lamin Pamly Ngevao thanked President Bio for visiting, adding that that particular visit is so historic that his people in the chiefdom would live to appreciate and celebrate it in many years to come.
He also thanked Bintu Jibao, founder and coordinator of the Women In Agriculture project in the district, for helping his chiefdom by bringing in the initiative that is now providing job opportunities for many of the young women in that part of the country, thereby complementing Government’s efforts at prioritising agriculture.
Giving an overview of the hospital project, Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Dr Thomas Samba, disclosed that the structure would be an ultra-modern 45-bed facility with a unit to cater for pregnant women and lactating mothers and their children and a laboratory unit for tests, a blood bank unit, a surgery and an isolation unit that would be used in an event of an emergency outbreak.
Before the turning of the sod, President Bio said that he was happy to be with the people of Jojoima, adding that he is particularly appreciative of their support for his Government and their belief in the New Direction agenda. He said he was excited to turn the sod for the construction of the hospital for people in that part of the creator.
In Kailahun District, Eastern Province on Sunday 22 November 2020 -Her Excellency First Lady Fatima Maada Bio launched the Women in Agriculture Project in the township of Woroma.
According to the founder and coordinator of Women In Agriculture Project, Bintu Jibao, the initiative started in 2018 when she saw the need for women in the chiefdom to support President Bio’s effort at investing in the agriculture sector to deliver on a food sufficient nation.
She maintained that the project had already empowered women to farm, process, sell their produce and become self-reliant.
Acting Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Abubakarr Karim, said that he is happy for the display of the agricultural initiative by women of Malema Chiefdom, noting that his ministry would support women in the agriculture sector.
Delivering the keynote address, First Lady Fatima Maada Bio thanked the women and people of the chiefdom for what she called a development infrastructure in agriculture, stating that she was amazed at the initiative of empowering women.
She promised the Project Coordinator that she would lobby the central Government for endless support to complement the efforts of the women in that part of the country.
