The Banker Magazine has once again selected United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc. as the “African Bank of the Year 2019”.

This is the second time UBA has clinched the prestigious award, having been named Best African Bank of 2017 by The Banker magazine.

This year, UBA also won best bank category in 6 of its subsidiaries: UBA Benin, UBA Chad, UBA Gabon, UBA Congo, UBA Cote D’Ivoire and UBA Sierra Leone.

Photo:  Members of  Solidaridad’s Programmes Advisory Group © Solidaridad/Sierra Leone

The Programme Advisory Group (PAG) that supervise the implementation of the cocoa and oil palm initiatives has commended Solidaridad for the impressive effort made in less than two years of programmes implementation. The commendation came after a field visit by the PAG to beneficiary communities where the programmes are being implemented.

In Sierra Leone, the tree crops sub-sector (including cocoa, oil palm, coffee and cashew) constitutes a major source of foreign
exchange earnings and job creation for close to 700,000 households. However, the sector is challenged with abandoned plantations, poor varieties, limited extension and input support to the smallholder farmers.

The Hon. Chief Minister of Sierra Leone, Professor David Francis yesterday 18th November, 2019 told the world that Sierra Leone is not only the most beautiful country in the world but, also now fully ready and open to do business with the rest of world under the New Direction.

Expand its second to none services across the country, Total has commissioned an ultra-modern filling station at Mile 91, Tonkolili district, Northern in Sierra Leone. The Company is one of the leading French petroleum companies operating in the Sierra Leone and it is second to none in the area of providing quality petroleum products and services.

Having been the 31^st service station in the country, Total Sierra Leone is not only concern about making profit but very much partnering with local entrepreneurs to create employment opportunities for communities and their people.

By Mohamed Lamin Banya

Business people and travelers in Sierra Leone over the years have been facing difficulty boarding direct flights to different destinations mostly to China, Indonesia and other countries.

 By Fatmata Seray Kamara

Suppliers of local content goods to supermarkets in the country have called on the Sierra Leone Local Content Agency to have a verified specification of local content producers. They made this suggestion during a round table discussion organized by the Sierra Leone Local Content Agency with Suppliers and Supermarket owners in the country on Wednesday 30 October 2019 at the Sierra Leone Local Content Agency.

A delegation from the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone has donated 20 solar-street lightings and fittings, as well as smaller indoor and outdoor solar lightings to the Freetown City Council (FCC) to help ease electricity difficulties faced by residents across the capital.

Cross-section of water producers at the meeting

As they strive towards manufacturing safe and pure sachet water in the country, the executive members of the Sierra Leone Pure Water Packeters and Bottling Organization have called on their members to produce quality and safe drinking water for customers in the country or face shut down by the government.

The Director-General of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, ADFD, His Excellency Dr Mohamed Saif Al Suwaidi, has in a meeting with His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio assured of their support to the development of Sierra Leone.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Sierra Leone Standard Bureau have certified all Pee Cee and Sons food products in the local market as safe and fit for human consumption according to our investigation on recent media reports about expired food products flooding the market.

His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has met with the Chairman of Elite Agro, Sultan Alshamsi, to discuss possible ways of investing in food cultivation in Sierra Leone.

By Alieu Alvin Kargbo

The trade facilitation West Africa program with support from German cooperation (GIZ) and World Bank group has conducted a dialogue session at the golden tulip to discuss trade protocols and agreements for the private sectors. 

This agreement will ensure the smooth operating of trade within West Africa and Africa as a whole, which will develop bilateral relationship between member states and improve the economy of its members. 

Salone Rated High

The World Bank Doing Business 2020 report was launched last week. The main messages for Africa is that economies in Sub-Saharan Africa continued to improve their business climates, with the region’s largest economy, Nigeria, earning a place among the year’s top global improvers alongside Togo.

Sierra Leone is rated high in the ‘trading across borders’ category: “Sierra Leone made trading across borders faster by upgrading its customs electronic data interchange system, thereby reducing the time for import documentary compliance” – the reports notes on Page 120.

Countries of the region enacted 73 reforms in the 12 months leading to May 1, down from a record high of 108, and the number of countries implementing at least one reform fell to 31 from 40. The regional average ease of doing business score was 51.8 on a scale of 0 to 100, below the OECD high-income average of 78.4 and the global average of 63.0.

His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has assured his colleague Heads of State and business leaders that Sierra Leone is a perfect destination with conducive ecosystem for credible businesses and investments.

By Saidu Bah

Khadijatu Brima a leading women’s farmer travelled 273 km from the mining District of Kono to participate in this year’s World Food Day celebrations in Port Loko.

She is one of the farmers under the Welthungerhilfe ProAct 2015 project that is funded by the European Commission.

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.