By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
Revealing the motive behind the establishment of the new Ministry, The Minister of Communication Technology and Innovation, Salima Monorma Bah has revealed that the Ministry’s priority is to digitize government services including the application of Sierra Leone passport book and many others.
The Communication Technology and Innovation Minister made the affirmation on Tuesday 26th September 2023 at the Ministry of Information and Education weekly press briefing at the Foreign Affairs building in Freetown.
The Minister started off by clarifying that the Ministry of Communication Technology and Innovation may seem new but the vision to improve technology had been in existence since President Bio’s first term in office. Madam Salima Bah assured that President Bio strongly believes that in order for a developing country like Sierra Leone to speedily develop, Science, Technology and Innovation were key and should be prioritized.
The Tech and Innovation Minister assured that Science Technology and Innovation remained the unavoidable bedrock to provide sustainable solutions to the many challenges facing the country. She justified that the dire need to resolve challenges using technology and to also catch up with other big countries in terms of development were what forced His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio to establish DSTI during his first term in office and to further establish a whole Ministry.
Minister Bah expressed that the people of Sierra Leone could relate to the fact that technology had been very instrumental in delivering President Bio’s agenda, particularly in education. “You can admit to the reality that the result checker has been very useful in enabling students to check for their personal results with zero cost attached. This was something that students were actually paying for through the purchase of scratch cards,” she expressed,
The Minister added that DSTI in collaboration with UNICEF had recently developed an app she identified as ‘Learning Passport’ that would digitize exams past question papers. ‘This app is set to eliminate the bottlenecks and struggles students normally face when trying to access past question papers. It would also enable students to sit Mock exam and assess their strength and weaknesses, said the Minister.
The Communication Technology and Innovation Minister further expressed that through DSTI they had made a lot of accomplishments in the health and finance sector. She revealed that those accomplishments were the additional compelling factors that also forced His Excellency to scale up and expand the sector by establishing the new Ministry so that Sierra Leone would be in the same position with other advance countries in terms of technology and Innovation.
Contextualizing the new Ministry’s role in achieving President Bio’s ‘Big Five Manifesto, the Minister said technology and Innovation were key across the limbs of that manifesto. Citing the flagship program of the ‘Big Five Manifesto,’ the Minister stated that the new Ministry would be working with the Ministry of Agriculture to leverage and achieve food security by using drones to survey agricultural lands and to also distribute fertilizers.
The Com. Tech. and Innovation Minister intimated the new Ministry’s determination to help achieve the 5,000 jobs creation which was another key objective of President Bio’s ‘Big Five Manifesto. As the Minister assured that most of those jobs would be based on international and digital job market, she said the Ministry would be working with NACTA to ensure the easy and affordable accessibility of home mobiles and internet facilities. “Having internet facility at homes is a basic human right, not a privilege or luxury,” she said.
The Minister spoke lengthy on the immensurable opportunities that come with having internet facilities at homes. She said accessible internet facilities at homes could help to access quality education and international jobs devoid of environment or locality. The Minister also expressed the challenges people, especially those in the provinces do face when trying to access government and other international services.
She revealed that the matter of coming to Freetown to access government services comes with a host of challenges and hardships that normally exclude those who could not withstand the challenges. Madam Salima Monorma Bah promised to address that perennial issue and digitize government services.
