His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has continued his working-visit to various parts of the country to assess the impact of his Government’s development projects.
President Bio on Friday, 28th April 2023 visited Port Loko District. Below are highlights of the President’s visit to the North-West Regional Headquarter District.
1. President Bio commissioned the newly constructed Community Health Clinic in Petifu Junction Lokomasama Chiefdom, Port Loko District, as part of his Government’s drive to reduce maternal and child mortality rates in the country. The hospital is expected to benefit approximately 60,000 residents spanning 45 villages. The facility is equipped with an X-Ray room, an operating theatre, two wards – for men and women (and children), laboratory, delivery room among other services.
The project in Lokomasama also falls within the New Direction approach to improving the quality of Primary Health Care services in six (6) districts through the construction of eight (8) advanced Community Health Clinics in six (6) districts.
2. Also on health, the President inspected the Field Hospital in Port Loko, a joint-partnership project by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). The facility caters for a 100-bed hospital, staff quarters for doctors and nurses, conference centre in addition to advanced medical equipment.
3. The President also inaugurated and handed staff-of-office to ten (10) newly-elected Paramount Chiefs from various Chiefdoms in the North-West region. Since his election as President in 2018, the Bio-led Government has made huge strides in dignifying the institution of chieftaincy, hence more professionals are now opting to serve their people at chiefdom levels.
4. Additionally, the President received thousands of supporters, who defected to the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) from the opposition All People’s Congress (APC). Notable among them was the former APC National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Alpha Kanu. The declarants say their decision to move to the SLPP was premised on the tremendous developments undertaken by President Julius Maada Bio to transform and unify the country.
5. Finally, on Saturday, 29th April 2023, His Excellency the President also handed over Le38billion (Old Leones) equivalent to $1.7 million, the first Community Development Fund (CDF) payment from the Marampa Mines Limited to the Marampa and Maforki Chiefdoms after 90 years.
It could be recalled that the President had also presided over similar disbursement in Tonkolili District. On Thursday, 30th March 2023, President Bio handed a cheque of Le 20.3 billion (Old Leones) as second payment of the Community Development Agreement (CDA) Fund from Leone Rock Metal Group to the people of Tonkolili District, following the Le5.4 billion payment to communities in Tonkolili District in 2022.
According to President Bio, mining communities must benefit significantly from mining activities in their areas to build sustainable communities informed by the New Direction’s policy shift of increasing the mining companies’ annual contribution to the mining communities from 0.01% under the previous Administration (pre-2018) to 1% of annual revenue by mining companies.
6. His Excellency the President also used the groundbreaking occasion to award 190 scholarships to indigenes of Lunsar and its environs.