News

By Ferry HYPERLINK

The Reuters News agency has reported that President Ernest Bai Koroma pressured the United Nations into withdrawing the Executive Representative of the UN Secretary General, Michael Von Der Schulenberg ahead of the 17 November elections, quoting a letter said to have been written by Mr Schulenberg. See full Reuters story below by Simon Akam.

 An Armenian daily in Yerevan has revealed how a $ 10 million dollar loan for a proposed mining takeover operation in Sierra Leone was diverted, bringing to question the manner some investors acquire money to invest in the country.

Here comes AIRTEL again

The disclosure by President Ernest Bai Koroma that supporters of the ruling APC party will be given the opportunity in choosing those to be awarded party symbols at this year’s elections specifically at municipal and parliamentary levels, has created quite a stir, not least amongst especially sitting parliamentarians.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a 50-million Euro loan agreement with ECOBANK, the African bank with the most predominant presence on the continent – present in 30 African countries. US$ 2.9 million of that facility is for ECOBANK Sierra Leone, the bank with the fourth largest investment in the country. The EIB loan to Ecobank Transnational Incorporated is to help Small and Medium term Enterprise (SME) investments with a view to reducing poverty on the continent.

There’s something we need to do urgently in this country. It’s really urgent. We need to significantly raise the quality of our national debate, make it substantial, open and clean – devoid of partisan rancour and cheap political sniping. With less than a year to the next presidential and general elections, Sierra Leone is more deeply divided today than it was in 2007. We have reached a stage where the colour of one’s clothes, one’s friends and one’s choice of even soft drink, marks you out as either APC or SLPP.