By Amin Kef Sesay
Since he assumed the position as President of Sierra Leone after the 2018 General Elections, His Excellency Julius Maada Bio has been putting premium on luring investors to invest in different areas. As if responding to the clarion call of the President, one of the country’s highly respected personalities, Alhaji Musa Tarawally, recently established what could be best described as an unprecedented state of the art garment factory situated on Wilkinson Road in Freetown.
In an exclusive engagement, the Proprietor intimated that for now he is putting premium on three key areas namely industrial garment production, capacity building and printing.
“The main objective behind the establishment of the garment factory is to make it a component in this country that will tremendously contribute to overall socio-economic development,” Musa Tarawally disclosed in a business-like manner adding that currently there are 18 experts from Pakistan, India, Cape Verde, Philippines and their main task or focus is to transfer knowledge to Sierra Leoneans and make production faster.
According to him, the factory has the capacity to employ 250 workers and produce a minimum of 50,000 dresses monthly further revealing how they are now training 250 Sierra Leoneans in industrial tailoring.
“Our product lines will be school uniforms, military, police, prisons, fire force and all security uniforms, industrial wears, wedding dresses and all fashion wears,” he optimistically revealed.
As a country that is richly endowed with various mineral resources it is understandable that there would be mining companies operating in different parts of the provinces.
Employees of these mining companies, while on operations, are mandated to put on personal protective wears, most of which are imported overseas. With a garment factory like TEES, fully equipped, it is but prudent on the part of Managements of the various mining companies to procure all their workers’ personal protective wears from the factory.
It is advisable that rather than buying those personal protective equipment from overseas, some of which are of inferior quality, TEES Garment Factory can easily fit in to manufacture them as per specifications and supply them.
It must be underscored at this juncture that Government has the onus of deepening the country’s Local Content Policy which must be tailored in the way of promoting indigenous talents and skills as opposed on dependency on external resources or products. It is far from protectionism but rather a deliberate attempt to create the enabling environment for local ideas and industries to thrive amidst stiff competition.
According to Musa Tarawally the garment factory has the capability of manufacturing and supplying personal protective equipment for mining companies.
“In as much as it is in tandem with enhancing the Local Content Policy it is also very advantageous in the sense that such could be cost effective on the part of these mining companies simply because they will not be paying certain taxes on imported personal protective equipment,” he averred.
Musa Tarawally stated with determination that in the next two years they will expand the company’s production and start cotton plantation all over the country in order to develop the textile factory and at the same time create 25 thousand jobs within 5 years of cotton plantation.
He reiterated that TEES Garment factory will not only offer employment opportunities to Sierra Leoneans directly and indirectly but will definitely boost the country’s economy in diverse ways including payment of taxes to Government.
Based on what he informed, the factory will not only cater for the local Sierra Leone market, but also will be exporting its products to other African countries, America, Asia and the EU, and at the same time is expected to have contractual agreements from countries within the West African sub-region too.
Asked how his investment will position the country he responded by stating that he plans and hopes to make Sierra Leone the best country for professional sewing and garment production in West Africa.
This news medium was made to understand that Truly Excellent and Exclusively Services, as the name implies, is what TEES is offering and will strive to continue to offer.
