Commentary

Details: 08 April 2025

Every year, an increasing number of African businesses receive funding, training, and support. But few become the engines of structural transformation the continent needs. Despite the momentum behind private sector development (PSD) across Africa, as a cornerstone for sustainable and inclusive growth, the metrics that dominate - the number of grants issued, startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) supported, or dollars spent - rarely reflect true economic resilience or depth. International Financial Institutions (IFIs), governments, and investors continue to commit billions in support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the continent. Yet, as these interventions scale, a fundamental question persists: Are we moving capital or moving the needle?
IFIs have long partnered with African governments and local implementing partners to catalyse private sector growth, especially in SME development across sectors like agriculture, technology, manufacturing, and services. Consider the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) record investment of $9.4 billion in 2022, which was directed at pharmaceutical, manufacturing, trade, and agricultural businesses across 36 African nations. Such initiatives spur growth, enable digital expansion, and open new markets, helping SMEs strengthen their foothold. However, despite the vast sums invested, with few success cases, systemic challenges across the continent raise the need to critically examine their true impact.
In Sierra Leone, for example, despite significant external support, many businesses struggle to scale sustainably and significantly, create jobs, or contribute substantially to the tax system. Multiple partners often support the same high-profile SMEs, with limited resources reaching Indigenous businesses that may have growth potential but lack exposure. This trend raises the question: How can we transition from quick-impact metrics to a model that builds lasting resilience, economic contribution, and structural change for more African businesses?
With the world striving toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goals 1, 8, 9, and 17, it is essential that private sector development (PSD) initiatives on the continent become not only impactful but also transformative. To achieve this, all stakeholders must shift their focus toward interventions that go beyond surface-level metrics to promote sustainable economic growth and drive structural change on a larger scale.
What is Transformative Impact and Why it Matters?
At its core, transformative impact fundamentally reshapes the economic landscape, promoting long-term, sustainable growth that drives systemic and inclusive change. Transformative PSD goes beyond traditional support aimed at marginal expansion or being investment-ready. Transformative PSD aims for deep-rooted resilience, job creation, poverty reduction, and structural economic change. For SMEs, this would mean creating well-paying, permanent jobs, increasing exports and entering new markets, adopting new technologies, investing in R&D, reducing carbon footprints, and implementing renewable energy practices. Additionally, transformative impact would bolster education, skills development, and health outcomes, generating businesses that not only survive but are tax compliant and contribute meaningfully to the economy.
Why the Current PSD Playbook Falls Short of Transformation
The traditional approach to PSD combines financial support, capacity building, policy advocacy, and infrastructure investment. These initiatives have sparked successes across the continent but often fall short of transformative impact due to a few notable gaps. First, donor-funded projects frequently apply standardised models, overlooking the complex realities of Africa’s diverse markets. Failing to account for local variances such as the rural-urban divide, informal sector dynamics, and weak financial markets, these models often yield suboptimal outcomes.
The technical assistance provided to businesses through donor-funded projects and local implementing partners often lack a ‘systems lens’. They tend to focus on broad business development services (BDS) and investment readiness without addressing ‘systems’ issues- the capacity to apply the core ‘delivery principles’- business-delivery planning, data systems, implementation tracking routines and tools, stakeholder engagement and management across the chain /ecosystem, communication and a strong focus on measurable impact not just outputs. This is crucial for internal SME growth and adequate integration into broader economic strategies, such as national economic diversification efforts and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Many PSD initiatives prioritise quick wins and measurable outputs, such as capital disbursement or business support numbers. However, such metrics do not necessarily translate to building resilient businesses that can withstand market shifts or make meaningful contributions to the economy.
While partners can provide funding and technical assistance, the success of these interventions often depends on the enabling environment created by local governments. Unfortunately, most governments lack intentionality in supporting Indigenous businesses. Without a robust enabling environment fostered by committed local governments, non-governmental interventions often lack the grounding needed for transformative, lasting change.
Three Shifts to Drive Transformative Private Sector Growth
As African governments seek to accelerate development through initiatives targeting human capital development, technology and innovation, economic diversification, and gender equality, the transformative potential of PSD initiatives remains largely untapped. To tap into the full transformative potential of PSD, donors, local Ips, and African governments must evolve their strategies by focusing on three critical areas:
1. Target Indigenous Businesses with Intentionality: In Sierra Leone, multiple partners often invest in the same SMEs, diverting resources from promising Indigenous enterprises that may lack exposure but possess substantial growth potential. IFIs and governments should actively avoid elite capture by prioritising support for these underrepresented businesses, ensuring that their growth spurs broader economic development.
2. Provide System-Based Technical Assistance: Traditional business development services and investment readiness programs are not enough. To achieve transformative impact, SMEs need assistance that encompasses delivery principles, systems-based approaches, and effective public-private dialogue. Such support equips SMEs to navigate complex markets, policy uncertainty, scale sustainably, and integrate into broader economic strategies.
3. Redefine What Success Looks Like: Success in PSD should not be measured solely by straightforward metrics, such as the number of businesses supported or capital invested. Instead, PSD should focus on creating businesses that have a significant impact on economic transformation- percentage revenue growth, direct and indirect jobs created, sustained changes in the income levels of beneficiaries, markets reached, business survival rate, etc. This could involve providing larger, catalytic funding and comprehensive support to a smaller number of businesses, enabling them to grow competitively.
For example, can we find a balance between breadth and depth? Between funding 10,000 small businesses with $10,000 and supporting 500 growth-ready, eligible businesses with $200,000 each, thereby catalysing growth and transformative impact?
From Outputs to Impact: A New Vision for PSD in Africa
While IFIs have made significant strides through various funding models, achieving true transformative impact will require a shift towards prioritising long-term sustainability, broader economic contributions, and resilience in supported businesses. By leveraging larger, concentrated investments, paired with systems approaches, IFIs and policymakers can implement PSD initiatives that bring not only short-term success but also deep-rooted lasting change. In rethinking the numbers we aim to move, we open the door to a private sector that drives Africa’s sustainable growth on a profound scale. Let us be bold enough to redefine success—not by how many businesses we reach but by how many lives we change. The future of Africa’s private sector depends not on just more funding but on smarter, deeper, and more transformative approaches.
About the author: Dr. Yakama Manty Jones (nee Mara) is an Economist, Lecturer, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist who advises leaders across Africa on public policy, economic transformation, delivery, and human capital development. She champions inclusive growth, focusing on education, gender equity, data, technology, and innovation. Yakama is also the founder of the Yak Jones Foundation and Data Mansah.

Details: 23 April 2024

Six secondary school principals in the capital Freetown have been suspended for a period of two months effective from April 15 to June 15, 2024 following investigations by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into alleged admission improprieties during the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) intake process.

Details: 21 September 2023

On 13th September, 2023, it pleased His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio to appoint Augustine Tehguma Moses Koroma as National Programme Coordinator - Free Quality School Education.The FQSE was and is still the flagship programme of the ‘New Direction’ administration of President Julius Maada Bio - a flagship programme that has enjoyed huge investments and national and international recognition and acclamations.
The scheme aims at improving the quality of the country's basic and senior secondary education and harnessing the country's human capital resource with a view to critically impacting national development.
But who is Augustine Teguhma Moses Koroma? Augustine Koroma was born on August 12, 1987 in Blama Town, Small Bo Chiefdom, Kenema District, Eastern Sierra Leone. He did his primary school education at the Dr. June Hols Roness Municipal School at Syke Street, Freetown, before proceeding to the Sierra Leone Grammar School.
After an impressive six-year sojourn at the Sierra Leone Grammar School, the new FQSE National Programme Coordinator gained admission at Njala University where he pursued and successfully completed a course in Banking and Finance. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours.
Augustine Koroma also holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Educational Administration and Management, an MBA in Project Management, and is currently an MSc Economics candidate at Njala University.
The new FQSE National Programme Coordinator can boast of a glittering professional career spanning over ten years that has increased his knowledge, broadened his horizon, deepened his insight and sharpened his experience.
He worked at different banking and micro-finance institutions for eight years and also had stints at the International Medical Corps and the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) where he served as Community Based Facilitator, Finance Officer and District Coordinator. He is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI).
The new FQSE National Programme Coordinator has worked with and implemented projects for international and local development partners and funders like the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank,USAID, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), and the Pro Poor Growth for Peace Consolidation (GPC).
Augustine Koroma is no stranger to the classroom and lecture room, having taught at different secondary schools as evidenced by his current part-time lecturer status at the Milton Margai Technical University (MMTU).
Mr. Koroma's appointment has been greeted with resounding praises and positive reactions from many young people across different spectra of society.
The young man is friendly, industrious, selfless, serviceable and delivery focused. Many believe he is going into his new job with a positive mentality and the requisite experience.
He Will Deliver Big Time!!!

Details: 09 April 2024

When a certain very corrupt and morally bankrupt former Treasurer from the Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB) goes about bragging about becoming the next Managing Director of a Bank he had looted so much that the Bank almost became bankrupt, it is evident to how some of our compatriots have always taken us for granted with brazen recklessness and audacity. And using such inconceivable nonsense as bait to lure few unsuspecting staff into an unholy alliance against a substantive MD, the results are often filled with frustrations, anger and disappointment. Who is this former Treasurer? Our investigations will soon reveal.
It is however important to note that this big 'alejo', who has an age old obsession for toppling one of the most transformative bank CEOs of our time has, as one of his strategies, the habit of soliciting help from some female staff of the Bank to gather the intelligence he needs to unseat his boss. We have carefully investigated some of these female staff and would soon be exposing their nefarious dealings with a desperate incorrigible, psychotic imbecile.
When he was caught stealing a whole bowser of fuel in the past and had to grovel on the ground, begging an erstwhile MD for clemency, many were unaware that the Bank was grooming an unrepentant rogue and demagogue.
We hold no brief for this former Treasurer at the Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB) but we are certainly not oblivious of our responsibility to prevent and expose any act that may threaten to reverse the gains made over the years in one of Sierra Leone's major financial institutions. And we are certainly not naive to know that this individual has been a major player in the all-too-familiar plot of using a former female employee to blackmail the current MD with fake and repugnant sexual harassment allegations.
It equally staggers our imagination to learn that this individual, who happens to be the real sexual predator at the Bank, has been one of those key figures that are using the dismissed female employee and some paid gender activists and newspapers to cry sexual harassment. What the public may not be aware of is the fact that this former Treasurer, who is Director in one of the Bank's departments, is so obsessed with sleeping with every female staff that he has been nicknamed 'Mr. Yearnie' in apparent reference to his uncontrollable libido. But who really is this masked devil at Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB)?

Details: 21 September 2023

National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) last Thursday 14th September, 2023 officially opened the inaugural meeting of the Steering Committee on the Informal Sector NASSIT Scheme.

Details: 09 April 2024

Prior to the operations of the fifty new buses in early February this year, which are a component of the Sierra Leone Integrated and Resilient Urban Mobility Project (IRUMP) funded by World Bank Grant, the Ministry of Transport and Aviation had issued a public notice as an ORDER informing the general public that effective midnight Monday 29th January 2024, the Public Transport Corridor would be a NO PARKING or NO ACCESS for push carts (omorlankay), okadas, kekehs, heavy goods vehicles and public transport vehicles (except for SLPTA licensed operators) during the hours of 6:00a.m. to 10:00p.m. The Transport Ministry’s public notice further stated that loading and off-loading would only be permissible during the hours of 10:00p.m. to 5:00a.m, noting that defaulters will be towed at their own cost.
According to the Transport Ministry’s public notice, there are two Public Transport Corridors which are the West Corridor and the East Corridor but our paramount concern here which we believe is of great public interest is the East Corridor which runs from Calaba Town through Bai Bureh Road, Kissy Road, Sani Abacha Street, Wilberforce Street, Rawdon Street and Siaka Stevens Street.
Notwithstanding the ORDER of the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, we have observed with trepidation that the Ministry can talk the talk but can’t walk the walk as evident at Sani Abacha Street where it is business as usual. The so-called ORDER has crumbled at Sani Abacha Street because of the Transport Ministry’s inaction in dealing with defaulters. It is no longer a secret that Omorlankays, Okadas, Kekehs, heavy goods vehicles and public transport vehicles ply the busy street from 6:00a.m. beyond midnight with apparent impunity and the Transport Ministry is doing nothing about such exhibition of lawlessness despite its public notice which people thought was something serious.
The movements of the ‘Waka Fine’ buses in the East Corridor, especially at Sanin Abacha Street, has become extremely difficult because of the daily presence of heavy goods vehicles either loading or off-loading, private vehicles of shop owners and customers, as well as commercial vehicles. These are all clear indications that the Ministry of Transport and Aviation has woefully failed to protect the East Corridor from defaulters and this is having an adverse effect on the operations of the ‘Waka Fine’ buses that are meant to move people faster than other commercial vehicles. We believe the purpose of these buses has been compromised by the Transport Ministry, which is as toothless in enforcing its public notice as the public suggests.
We believe it is about time the Ministry of Transport came out of its cocoon and ensure the public notice is fully enforced otherwise the East Corridor wiould not be considered as a better route for the free movement of the ‘Waka Fine’ buses. The Ministry should therefore implement what they stated in its public notice or the general public would lose confidence in the Ministry for its inability to do what it has promised the people and this would have a telling effect on the ‘Waka Fine’ buses plying the East Corridor. Moreover, the abandonment of road work at Sani Abacha Street has not only exacerbated the situation but has also given more laxity to traders to encroach upon the streetto sell their goods thereby obstructing the free flow of the ‘Waka Fine’ buses. Since most of the iron railings have been removed for extension work, the abandoned ditches have become an eyesore and traders have taken advantage of the situation by encroaching upon the street thereby slowing vehicular traffic in addition to stationary vehicles waiting to either be loaded or off-loaded. We believe something desperate should be done by the Minister and his staff to prove to the public that they are more than capable of protecting the East Corridor for the smooth operations of the ‘Waka Fine” buses. The operations of these buses must be sustained and posterity would surely judge Mr. Minister should he fail in his duty to enforce what he has promised Sierra Leoneans.

Details: 21 September 2023

The dedicated and resilient Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Ibrahim Sesay, has been conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Science degree (D.Sc) by Njala University at a ceremony on Friday 15th September, 2023 in Bo City. The Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) degree is awarded to individuals who have made groundbreaking and significant contributions to their field, humanity and society.

Details: 18 October 2023

The Background
Social media and mainstream media have since last week been awash with a seeming conflict between two private entities that are friends of Sierra Leone, over the use of the rail track situated in the Port Loko/Tonkolili axis of the country. Arise IIP, a private investment entity that has been given a contract to develop the Sierra Leone Economic Investment Zone, and other areas, is poised to bring in passenger trains into the country for the first time since the closure of such transport services in the mid-1970s.
However, this component of their planned investment has some snags as the rail track which they intend to use for the passenger trains is subject to clearance by the previous owners of the track, Kingho. Kingho, another private company of Chinese origin, had developed the rail track running from Tonkolili to Pepel in the Port Loko district, and had been using it for transporting their iron ore to the seaport of Pepel for eventual exporting to China.
The Contentions
The contentious rail track was actually built by the Chinese company Kingho that had a contract with the Government of Sierra Leone for the construction of a rail track in specified areas in the north of the country. The terms of the contract was to Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT), which means that the constructed rail track was to be handed over to the government after a certain period of time. Section 6 Part 4 of the contract between Kingho Mining Company and the Government of Sierra Leone gives the former the right to transport their product from Tonkolili to Pepel using the railway. Indeed, Kingho built and operated the rail track but had not handed over to it, when their contract with the Government of Sierra Leone was terminated.
As a country seeking genuine investors as engines of growth and development, government has been seeking investors. Arise IIP entered the fray and rolled out an elaborate plan of investment in the country that could run into billions of Leones. It sought cabinet approval to develop the Sierra Leone Economic Investment Zone and got it. However, with regards the use of the rail track and management of the port of Pepel, there were attendant forerunner contracts that it first needed to meet, before qualifying for its full use. These conditions precedent had to be fulfilled before Arise IIP could be given the right to use the rail track.
It is also important to understand that the contract between the Government of Sierra Leone and Arise IIP was not ratified by Parliament, the body that as per law approves and ratifies all contracts and negotiations that Government of Sierra Leone enters into. At the time of the contract negotiations and cabinet approval of Arise IIP, the country was at the throes of the elections and the life span of the previous Parliament was nearing its end. This means that technically, Arise IIP had just a loose contract with the Government of Sierra Leone.
Government’s Interest
The Government of President Julius Maada Bio has no special interest in any of the two entities but the interest of Sierra Leone. President Bio has said from the onset of his presidency in 2018, that he would seek the best interest of the country and that he would deal with genuine investors with credibility and pedigree. Both Arise IIP and Kingho Mining are friends of Sierra Leone and the President recognises that. The bottleneck around the use of the rail track would be handled in a way that the country’s interest is neither jeopardised nor mortgaged. Kingho Mining has a contract with the Government of Sierra Leone dating back to June 14, 2022 that covers the construction of a rail track for transporting their product from Tonkolili to Pepel. Though this contract was temporarily upended, yet the initial owners and the Government of President Bio are still in discussions. Arise IIP are still partners with the Government of Sierra Leone and have been given the SIZ, which can serve as the spring board for them to launch themselves for bigger projects in future. The use of the rail track which was initially built by Kingho Mining has gone way beyond the company itself. The technicalities and national interests do not make way for sidestepping Kingho Mining in the use of the track.

Details: 13 September 2023

Leonoil Company Limited popularly known as LEONCO, the leading oil marketing company in the country on Thursday 7th September, 2023 opened another ultra-modern filling station at Rotifunk, Lungi, Kaffu Bullom Chiefdom, Port Loko District.
This latest move by the Oil Marketing Company fulfills its strategic vision to bring liquid gold to the doorsteps of customers in communities nationwide to make its petroleum products accessible to all.

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