Focus on Sierra Leone

“I have noticed a positive trend in terms of establishing and operating a business in Sierra Leone,” adds Gaiva Lavaly, managing director of International Consulting Services, a Sierra Leonean engineering firm, who says that the commissioning of the Bumbuna Dam has significantly improved the business landscape.

“The previous regime did a lot of legislative framework in terms of conducting business,” observes Wilfred Sam King, owner of the recently opened Taia Resort hotel in Freetown, and one of Sierra Leone’s best-known entrepreneurs. “That framework was quite vital. However, implementation and acting on those strategies was a bottleneck problem,” he continues.

Turning his attention to the administration of president Koroma, he begins with a cautious endorsement. ”I think they are in office for nearly two years now. It is absolutely unfair for anyone to just wake up and say they have not done well. They need time,” he says, adding that “This government is coming in under a very difficult situation. [Because of the global economic downturn] They don’t have easy access to funds that the previous government had.

“Steps are being taken, and for me that is where I believe the government’s Agenda for Change seriously needs to be supported, until such a time that it becomes practically and visibly clear that they cannot deliver.”

Sipping from a cup of tea in London’s upmarket Fortnum & Mason department store on the eve of the investment forum, John Sisay, the Chief Executive of Titanium Resources, Sierra Leone’s largest private sector employer, begins his assessment of the country’s private sector development prospects with an ominous warning.

“In the next few years the government has got to decide whether it’s interested in wealth creation or wealth appropriation. When you have countries the size of Sierra Leone that have mineral wealth, government generally tend to lean towards appropriation. By that I mean they tax more, and have cumbersome administrative frameworks,” he adds. “I think this is the biggest challenge for them now. It really is a case of the brave shall win the day in terms of the kind of policies they bring in.”

Looking at the government’s track record so far, his tone is decidedly optimistic. “There is no question that they understand the need for the private sector. In terms of understanding the private sector they’ve got some work to do, to be honest,” he says, but is quick to add that “this is not a criticism, it is just the fact that you are looking at a country where you haven’t had a lot of people who build corporations and businesses, so understanding of the private sector is limited.”

Mr Sisay also emphasizes the importance of partnership with the government. “I have worked in a lot of African countries, usually [governments] are very aggressive, they don’t understand you and there is always an adversarial relationship between company and government. We don’t have that. That is not to say we don’t have our fights, of course we do. But we can have our fights and laugh afterwards.”

He does, however, reserve some criticism for the government in an area in which he feels that more action is needed in order to improve the private sector’s business experience in Sierra Leone. “The one thing that’s missing – and they are going to hate me for saying this – is the civil servants. They are, in my view, the biggest stumbling block to development. I know that this is something they have been thinking about, but in terms of government working efficiently, they just need to have a massive civil service reform.”

This, however, does nothing to dampen his optimism about Sierra Leone’s development prospects in the coming years. “I think Sierra Leone is poised to take off. The people are at that place where they are not willing to accept anything less. The confidence I have about Sierra Leone is that the people are so hungry for a change that any leadership that wants to take it backwards will not be allowed to.”

By Africa Financial Times

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