By: James Kamara-Manneh
The government of Sierra Leone through the Minister of Information and Communications Mohamed Rahman Swaray together with the Director General of SMART AFRICA DIGITAL ACADEMY, Lasina Konneh on 4th April 2023 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Freetown.
Speaking to Journalists at the Launch, Minister Swaray said the launch of the digital Academy could not have come at a better time than now, and that government is religiously in support of the MOU signing.
He said Sierra Leoneans need more digital skills in every facet of work life and such a project must be been launched; so that Civil Servants and other government officials will benefit from different pieces of training.
He said at the start of 2018 it was proven that 360,000 Sierra Leoneans connected to the internet and at the close of last year there were 2.6 million internet users in the country. He said the government is keen on digital empowerment and a viable environment is been created by partnering with SADA.
Mr. Swaray stated that the project resonates with the Government’s medium-term National Development Plan and the National Digital Development Policy and strategy in line with the Government agenda of developing a resilient and affordable Digital Ecosystem to achieve the vision of the President and for Sierra Leone to be included into an inclusive digital economy and society with a digitally empowered citizenry supporting sustainable economic development, democracy, national security, and good governance respectively.
The eloquent minister highlighted that President Bio has urged them not to miss out on the fourth industrial revolution this time; Sierra Leone like any other African country that has missed out on the three industrial revolutions that the country should not miss out which is digital technology.
He said his government wants to leave Sierra Leone scaling up with a digital technological system that will compete with other industrialized countries. He added that the relationship between the government and SADA has started bearing fruit in Sierra Leone and many offices have benefited from digital training with SADA.
While the Director General of SADA, Lassina Konneh applauded the Minister for tireless efforts towards actualizing the project. He said Sierra Leone has exhibited a willingness to associate with SMART AFRICA and is more so ready to improve on its digital space with other African countries.
Mr. Konneh added that SMART AFRICA is at the service of Sierra Leone and that the digital feature of Africa is promising and the development of digital skills is crucial for the progress of any country.
The aim is to transform Africa into a digital, he said, adding that to be transformed is to be informed. Africa is the most populous continent with the youngest population rate in the world, Konneh said imperatively every day government must empower its citizens with different digital skills, and that by 2030 about two hundred and thirty million jobs will require digital job skills while statistics have shown that Africa needs to create more digital jobs from now to 2030.
He gladly expressed that they were pleased to sign the MOU with Sierra Leone a platform to brace the critical digital skills project as a means to support the country’s Ecosystem in this revenging digital economy.
Mr. Konneh said the launch of SADA-Sierra Leone is happening at a time Sierra Leone an inactive member of SMART Africa Alliance is undertaking various digital transformation projects such as the implementation of the Amilcar Cabral submarine cable landing, and many others that require high digital skills.
Hence, the program was chaired by the revered deputy Minister of information, Solomon Jamiru who also applauded the hard work of the Minister in getting SADA to sign an MOU with the government of Sierra Leone.
The program was climaxed by the signing of the MOU and questions and answer session from the press.
