By Francis H. Murray
President Julius Maada Bio has told the people of Pujehun that they would build and furnish a Junior and Senior all-girls Secondary School of Excellence in the district within the next 18 months.
Speaking during a tour of the district over the weekend, the president said the school would “cater for 300 pupils and will be a full boarding school with state-of-the-art facilities”.
He said that as a new secondary boarding school, “we will plan for its future growth and expansion. We are building in a green zone to enhance the landscape, support the teaching of biology through maintaining the natural vegetation at the location, and keeping a land bank for future development”.
In a release from the State House Communications Unit, the President noted that his government had already granted full tuition waivers for all pupils at the Basic and Senior Secondary education level for all 326 approved schools that benefit from government financial support.
He added that 18,318 pupils were already benefiting from the school feeding programme, with 415,866 students having received free teaching and learning materials as well as core textbooks and two school buses provided to serve thousands of students in the district.
Reaffirming his government’s commitment to provide support for agriculture in all chiefdoms throughout the district, President Bio said they were making available 200 hectares of new cocoa variety farms for 200 farmers in Galiness, Barry and Sorogbema chiefdoms in the 2020/2021 farming season.
“We are also developing 109 hectares (Ha) of Inland Valley Swamp (IVS) for rice cultivation in Dama, Gaura, Koya and Tonkia chiefdoms for 211 households in the 2020/2021 farming season. The developed swamps will promote double-cropping per year with expected yield of three to four (3-4) metric tons per hectare with improved seed rice variety,” he said.
In the area of infrastructure, Bio said that in addition to ongoing work, his government would tar three kilimetres of township roads in Bandajuma Sowa and throughout the district, adding that government had funded 100 solar-powered boreholes with 15 stand posts for each town to serve about 12,000 people in Pujehun Kanga Chiefdom, Masam Kpaka Potoru Barri and Zimmi Makpele chiefdoms.
The President was also taken on a conducted tour of the facilities and investments of Socfin Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd Oil Palm Plantation in Malen Chiefdom, where in 2019 a refinery was commissioned to process over 100 tons of crude palm oil per day producing cooking oil, soap and margarine for the local market.
“Our continuing relationship with SOCFIN demonstrates our recognition that agro-based production and industries are critical to economic development and supportive of our core commitment to improving food security. I am also informed that SOCFIN supplies two local refineries in Freetown and Sierra Leone has become a net exporter of palm oil. I am, therefore, happy to commission this important production factory,” he concluded.
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