August 9, 2021
By Dadson A.Musa
The World Bank, in their bid to help Sierra Leoneans come out of unemployment and youth discontentment injected $22,000,000 into a project right across the country. This project targeted institutions that offered technical and vocational skills training for young people in this country to be employable and self-reliant.
It was made clear that demand-led skills should be of priority. So a special branch was created in the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education to coordinate it. It is headed by Dr. Victor Massaquoi but his supervision of it has come into serious questioning. The project had long got off across the country although late in some institutions. It has no doubt made some difference in the lives of some students and tutors. The first batches of institutions are in the advance stage of project implementation as students have started on-the-job training. The first batch of implementation has gone on and needed assessments and will be made to ascertain whether it has gone on as planned.
Word reaching this medium has a grim revelation about the first phase of implementation. That gross unfairness, political party connections, corruption and nepotism has influenced disbursement of funds to certain institutions.
Mushroom institutions have benefited from these funds leaving out more established ones and a case in point is SAIDAC in Bo which has been deliberately side stepped.
SAIDAC, an institution that has produced workers some of whom are in the finance ministry and agriculture ministry is being left out.
The institution also has graduates working in corporate institutions like Africel, EDSA et al is yet to be considered. Reports are that also if you don’t agree on giving kickbacks your institution will not be given. Some institution heads have also mismanaged these funds under the watchful eyes of the ministry officials.
Stipends meant for students were reduced.
The World Bank in its bid to help our country reduce or end youth unemployment will be amazed at how it has gone so far. There is unnecessary delay in disbursement of funds for the next set of institutions. The ministry officials keep stipulating dates and reviewing them.