Sierra Leone: Business more than usual

This Situation Report is a snapshot and analysis of political and socio-economic trends in Sierra Leone.

It is over three years since Ernest Bai Koroma, leading the All Peoples Congress (APC), became President of Sierra Leone, and less than two years to elections that will test both his popularity and the country’s ability to sustain its postwar democratic experiment.

Koroma’s victory in 2007,  which unseated the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) after it had steered the country through a brutal civil war to a peaceful democratic transition, was remarkable. It was only the second time in Sierra Leone’s history that a sitting government was defeated at the polls; and it brought to power a party that had introduced a one-party state in the 1970s, led the country to civil war in 1991, and was overthrown in a coup by junior officers in 1992.

Since coming to power, Koroma’s government has appeared full of vigour and the past three years have been eventful. The government has completed a number of road reconstruction projects it inherited from its predecessor and has embarked on significant new ones. While still far from being satisfactory, the electricity situation in the capital, Freetown, has improved considerably; and on the whole the capital is far cleaner and more robust than it was previously. In addition, Koroma’s efforts to provide free medical care for lactating mothers and children under five are commendable. No less important, the government’s  smallholder Commercialisation Programme, which aims to assist peasant or subsistence farmers in the country with the resources and technical know-how to expand and commercialise their productive capital, holds immense promise. These are significant initiatives that cannot be scorned, though the jury is still out on their medium- to long-term effectiveness.

Author: Lansana Gberie