Upgrading at Freetown Port will set it on course to become the transshipment hub of the region.

MAJOR improvements are being made in Sierra Leone’s transport infrastructure with financial support from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (ADB). A grant of US$44 million, recently announced by the World Bank, will be used to rehabilitate selected priority roads, port and airport facilities, as well as support regulatory and institutional reforms.

Infrastructure investments are key to the government’s efforts to reduce poverty, secure sustainable economic growth, and reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The unreliability and high cost of state-owned utilities and the transport network constitute huge barriers to economic recovery and expansion. The road network is insufficient and severely deteriorated, and frequent blackouts mean the power supply is, at best, sporadic.

Nonetheless, there are companies in the transport and communications sectors offering a high level of service, and steady progress is being made in the reconstruction efforts.

One of Sierra Leone Airports Authority’s major investment programs at the national airport is stimulating the resumption of an increasing number of direct international flights.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Ports Authority (SLPA) is looking to take advantage of what is the third largest natural harbor in the world, and develop its potential as a transshipment hub. The World Bank is financing the dredging and paving of the container terminal and provision of equipment to the tune of almost US$7 million. It is also supporting the restructuring of the SLPA.

DONALD BULL General Manager of Sierra Leone Airports Authority -INTERVIEW	NESTOR GALLEY General Manager of Sierra Leone Ports Authority

Nestor Galley, the authority’s General Manager, says, “Our productivity rates are already quite high and we believe that, with extra facilities, we will be among the most productive ports in the subregion. It will take us time to become the transshipment hub, and prepare the port for privatization, but we are making progress.”

The initial stages of the privatization process are due to start this year, and by 2008 the SPLA aims to become a landlord ports authority, with the granting of concessions to private companies running the container terminal and stevedoring activities.

Crucially, Sierra Leone’s road network will be fully rehabilitated in the next couple of years. Bordered by Liberia on one side and Guinea on the other, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) is developing the linkages for a trans-West African highway. Work on the highway from Freetown to Conakry, the Guinean capital, began one year ago and will be completed by the end of 2006.
First, the road from Freetown to Bo in southern Sierra Leone is being reconstructed. Once this is linked to Liberia via an ADB-funded project for the road from Gbangajuma to the Mano Bridge, there will be a trans-West African highway from Conakry to Freetown, on to Bo, and then to Monrovia, Liberia.
By next year, the government expects to have renovated 50 percent of its feeder roads to link the provincial areas to the main roads. By then, a large number of the main routes would have been upgraded. This will not only reduce the costs of doing business, but also alleviate poverty by allowing people to access markets.

According to Prince Harding (INTERVIEW), Minister of Transport and Communications, control of the Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation is going to be transferred to the private sector. “We have decided to make it another candidate for privatization, and we are hoping that some entity will take it over and run it efficiently for everyone. Transport is an open field for anybody to come in and compete,” the minister adds.

Other areas of national infrastructure are also being improved. Mobile telecoms companies will offer countrywide coverage by the beginning of 2006, and are fast superseding the country’s aging system of landlines by offering reliable and affordable service.

Jointly funded by the World Bank, the ADB and the Government of Italy, the long-standing Bumbuna Hydroelectric project will finally be completed in 2007 and cost US$91.8 million. This will provide a reliable electricity supply to Freetown and the whole of the western area of Sierra Leone, improving public services and providing an affordable energy supply to replace expensive generators.

Talks are being held with Eskom Holdings, the South African power utility, to agree on a management contract for the National Power Authority.