Managing Director of Mercury International, Mr Martin Edmond Michael
Managing Director of Mercury International, Mr Martin Edmond Michael has encouraged the company’s lottery and sports betting customers across the country to always feel free and bet more within their reach to be able to join the long list of daily winners from the company lottery products.
By PR Department, Mercury International
It appears the Christmas season is almost here for Mercury International customers after the company made a total payout of Three Billion, Six Hundred Millions Leones (Le3.6,000,000) to over Thirteen Thousand (13,000) customers in a single individual draw.
Sierra Leone’s undisputed leading Sports Betting and Lottery Company, Mercury International continues to make more millionaires in the country through its daily lottery and sports betting games, with the latest on Sunday 6th October 2019.
By Saidu Bah
Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe with President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone
The Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe has expressed Japan’s commitment and determination to advance technical cooperation with Sierra Leone by supporting employment creation efforts with the private sector.
The Japanese Prime Minister held a 15 minutes summit Meeting with President Julius Maada Bio, of Sierra Leone, in Yokohama, Japan where he expressed hope to strengthen bilateral business relations, as well as willingness to support nation-building and human resource development of Sierra Leone.
By Ransford Lube-Metzger
To determine the fish biomass and distribution for better conservation and sustainable management of the fish resources, a fish stock assessment survey has been launched to look into the fishing sector.
This fish stock survey assessment team will work side by side with marine biologists and scientists in Sierra Leone to study comprehensively our fish stocks, seasonal variations, distribution, estimate their size and do much more. The ceremony was held at the Queen Elizabeth Quay in the East End of Freetown.
Special Representative of China assures Sierra Leone of further cooperation
State House, Freetown, Friday 6 September 2019 - President Xi Jinping's Special Representative, Yang Jiechi, has met with His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio to assure of his country’s commitment to further deepening and strengthening bilateral relations with the New Direction Government.
Stakeholders to Build a Solid Agenda to Roll out The Decade of Family Farming
On 20th December 2017, the United Nations General Assembly, in its 72nd Session, proclaimed the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 to serve as a framework for countries to develop public policies and investments to support family farming and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by addressing family farming from a holistic perspective, and including enhancing their resilience for rural poverty eradication in all its forms and dimensions.
Against this background and with the aim of strengthening the capacity of relevant stakeholders, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Family Farming Platform in Sierra Leone, are organizing two days national forum with the aim of building a solid, multi-stakeholder and participatory agenda for rolling out the Decade of Family Farming in Sierra Leone.
The workshop will take place on 29th and 30th August 2019 at the Dohas Hotel Conference Room, Bo City, starting at 8:30 am daily.
Key stakeholders are expected to get better understanding of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming during the workshop.
Launch of the UN’s Decade of Family Farming to unleash family farmers’ full potential, lFAO and IFAD Global Action Plan highlights family farmers as key drivers of sustainable development. Family farmers are diverse. They are smallholder farmers, families of herders, fishers, mountain and forest people.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) launched the United Nations' Decade of Family Farming and a Global Action Plan to boost support for family farmers, particularly those in developing countries.
The two UN agencies lead the implementation of the Decade of Family Farming declared by the United Nations at the end of 2017.
Family farms represent over 90 per cent of all farms globally, and produce 80 percent of the world's food in value terms. They are key drivers of sustainable development, including ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition.
The Decade of Family Farming aims to create a conducive environment that strengthens their position and maximizes their contributions to global food security and nutrition, and a healthy, resilient and sustainable future.
The Global Action Plan provides detailed guidance for the international community on collective and coherent actions that can be taken during 2019-2028.
It highlights the need to increase, among other things, family farmers' access to social protection systems, finance, markets, training and income-generating opportunities.
"We don't have only the problem of hunger, which is on this rise, but also the problem of growing obesity. We need to pay attention to obesity. We know what we have to do to combat hunger, but not enough about combating obesity. Family farmers are the ones who produce local, fresh food, and produce food in a sustainable way. This is their contribution," said José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General at the launch of the Decade in Rome.
"To meet the Sustainable Development Goals of zero hunger and no poverty, we must invest in the world's small-scale family farmers and help them leverage their assets, knowledge and energy, and empower them to transform their lives and communities," said Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President. "The choices we make now will determine whether our future food systems are healthy, nutritious, inclusive, resilient and sustainable."
And in letter read out at the launch, Pope Francis said: "The employment of young people in agriculture, in addition to combating unemployment, can bring new energies to a sector that is proving to be of strategic importance to the national interests of many countries. The goals of the 2030 Agenda cannot ignore the contribution of young people and their capacity for innovation."
Family farmers are important drivers of sustainable development. Family farming encompasses the production of all food - be that plant-based, meat, including fish, other animal products such as eggs or dairy, and food grown on agricultural lands, in forests, in the mountains, or on fish farms - that is managed and operated by a family, and is predominantly reliant on the family labour of both women and men.
Family farmers provide healthy, diversified and culturally appropriate foods, and grow most of the food in both developing and developed countries. Furthermore, family farmers generate on- and off-farm employment opportunities, and help rural economies grow in addition to preserving and restoring biodiversity and ecosystems, and use production methods that can help reduce or avert the risks of climate change.
They ensure the succession of knowledge and tradition from generation to generation, and promote social equity and community well-being.
Although family farmers produce most of our food they - paradoxically - face poverty, especially in developing countries. They face challenges because they lack access to resources and services to support their food production and marketing; because their infrastructure is poor; because their voices go unheard in political processes; and because the environmental and climatic conditions on which they rely are under threat.
In general, women farmers face greater constraints. Rural youths are also highly vulnerable due to a lack of incentives for on-and off-farm employment opportunities.
The Global Action Plan of the Decade of Family Farming is a guide to develop policies, programs and regulations to support family farmers, putting forward collective and coherent actions that can be taken during the next ten years.
Ambassador of TICAD 7 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan Masahiko Kiya
By Saidu Bah in Japan
The Ambassador of TICAD 7 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan Masahiko Kiya has said that Sierra Leone is expected to benefit immensely from the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) through business partnership and innovation to solve domestic problems.
He made this statement at the conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turkey Japan Tuesday August 26, 2019 during an orientation session for 32 African Journalists covering the event in Yokohama.
"Some African countries are at risk of mortgaging their people's futures in favor of today's consumption," Albert Zeufack, Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank.
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The World Bank says Macroeconomic Management Weakens While Social Inclusion Policies Improve Slightly in Africa's Poorest Countries whilst sustainability concerns on the rise. |
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WASHINGTON, July 31, 2019-Africa's poorest countries saw little to no progress on average in improving the quality of their policy and institutional frameworks in 2018, according to the World Bank's annual Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) released today. The average CPIA score in Africa's 38 International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries in 2018 remained unchanged at 3.1 on a scale of 0 to 6, with some areas of social policy seeing improvements while macroeconomic management weakened. The rule of law, accountability and transparency, and the quality of public administration remained major areas that impede the efficient use of public resources across the region. This year's CPIA Africa report takes a closer look at debt management, as the median government debt-to-GDP ratio reached 54.9 percent of GDP in 2018, an 18.5 percentage-point increase since 2013. At the same time, the share of foreign currency bonds in total external debt increased by 10 percent while the shares of debt owed to commercial and non-Paris Club creditors rose by 5 percentage points since 2010, and sovereign bond issuances have increased rapidly. 
Osman Darbo, a Sierra Leonean living in The Gambia is said to be the Chairman of Local Sierra Leonean Businessmen at Black Market. He has being brutally murder by Gambian security forces (police) after being beaten, allegedly without no valid reason. 
By Aruna Turay Shareholders of the Aureol Insurance Company Limited on Friday 19th July, 2019 converged at the Atlantic Hall, National Stadium in Freetown to hold its 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) and to receive the Company’s Annual Report for the financial year ended 31st December, 2018, to declare dividend, to elect Directors and to fix their remuneration and to appoint the Auditor and to authorise the Director to fix their remuneration. In her opening statement, the Chairperson of the Board, Mrs. Yasmin Fofanah mentioned the slow growth of the country’s economy which she said was largely due to the cessation of iron ore mining operations coupled with other factors such as inflation, the depreciation of the Leone and the fluctuation of the foreign exchange rates. 
The mini Amphitheatre at MMCET Congo Cross – Walton Gilpin and Victor Bocakrie cutting the tape Students at the Congo Cross Campus Milton Margai College of Education, Science and Technology last weekend celebrated the official handing over a new Mini Amphitheatre, three rehabilitated relaxation sheds and leisure gardens by the Rokel Commercial Bank. This came through a request by the Student Union government of the campus. 
Presidents Bio and KagameSierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio has joined 53 other African leaders to append their signatures on the greatest Free Trade in the world. 54 African nations have officially launched a landmark trade agreement at the African Union summit signed on Sunday in the Nigerien capital Niamey. 
MD, Engineer Senesie Kallon and the landline handsets Sierra Leone Telecommunication Company (SIERRATEL) has launched a free landline service for both voice and data that would last for thirty days, with the view to extending reach to its customers across the country. The promotion, according to the Director of Marketing, Albert Bangura-Will is a free on-net calls and data services for only customers that are already using SIERRATEL ‘all plus packages’. 
By Ranger The, Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL), the country’s premier manufacturer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in the country, continues to make impressive inroads not only by gaining more customer base but also for rolling out solid developmental projects in certain communities. In other words the company is commendably honouring its corporate social responsibility that is impacting positively on the lives of people. 
Following days of uncertainty in petroleum supply with fears that the commodity was becoming scarce, AYV conducted in-depth investigation into the matter to ascertain the root cause (s) and what is responsible for the recent seeming shortage of fuel across the country. It was gathered that National Petroleum Sierra Leone (NP-SL) recorded a massive loss of over Le 96 billion (ninety six billion Leones) between January to May 2019. 
Director of Crops Division Director of Crops Division (MAF), John Kamara has said the Policy on Cocoa and Coffee will help farmers greatly in Kenema, Kono and Kailahun that are producing these products. He said studies have shown that the three district has more climatic condition in which these products flourish. “Since 1930 the mines have not benefited the country as a whole” he said 
The leading Telecommunication operator in Sierra Leone, Africell has given Iftar to Muslims nationwide that are fasting in this Holy month of Ramadan. Iftar is one of the religious observances of Ramadan and it is taken just after the Maghrib prayer and it is done in emulation of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) who before his death breaks his fast in this manner. 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) after its first economic performance review has rated Sierra Leone’s economic performance under the New Direction as very satisfactory and this will see the country benefiting from grants in the coming months. It could be recalled that on 23rd April this year a team led by Dr. Karen Ongley as Mission Chief from the IMF commenced the first economic performance review of Sierra Leone under the New Direction and the newly-agreed programme. 
One of newly installed state-of-the-art plants The Sierra Leone Brewery Company Limited (SLBL) on Friday 26th April 2019 informed the media and officials of the Consumer Protection Agency about its recent investments in facilities upgrade in its new brew house as well as the recently overhauled packaging bottling line costing Le3.5 billion. Since 1962, SLBL has pride itself with that rich heritage tied to the history of the country with the vision of growing with Sierra Leone as well as to further improve the efficiency of its bottling operations and to ensure that that its services are to its valued consumers and consumers in the future. Business News
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