Sierra Leone’s vast stock of natural resource should be seen as a blessing and not a curse. It should be used as a solid stepping stone for the country’s continuous rise in the face of the developed and developing world’s insatiable appetite for natural resources.

Very obvious that so richly endowed with mineral resources, Sierra Leone has no business being ranked amongst the poorest countries in the world. We are thus glad that a very patriotic mined Minister of Mines and mineral resources has decided to take the bull by the horns to sanitize the mining sector so that the country can benefit more from its minerals.

In the process, at the international level, President Bio and our permanent representative at the United Nations in link with all the other African heads of states must press hard on expanding the reducing policy space available for Africa within international trade negotiation processes – especially through the World Trading Organization – WTO.

For resource rich African countries to be helped quickly by the West to escape poverty, unfair trade treaties and rules set out by international bodies that penalize Africa’s value addition process to its primary commodities need to be reviewed in light of the increased demand and competition for Africa’s minerals from the China and the Far East.

In geological terms, Africa is still the ‘unknown continent’ with vastly unexplored quantities of extractive potential. Geological mapping and mineral inventory has not covered the entire continent thus masking the true geological potential of the continent.

African governments do not have the capacity to take stock of their mineral resources relying on trans-national companies to access commercial capacities of newly found discoveries especially oil and gas. This lack of verified data severely compromises negotiation capacity and the continents bargaining power.

New technologies abound that will make it easy for Africa to have a better appreciation of its natural resource base but this is held back by a lack of sustained and well-financial commitments with exploration largely left in the hands of the private sector.

Thus it is that we should applaud the Bio government for undertaking a modern scientific mapping of the country’s resources lying below the surface.
Most importantly, a very important structural measure is for the government to better integrate the country’s development policies by embedding long term development objectives firmly into the processes for extracting natural resources.

For mining to benefit Africa’s people, strong backward and forward linkages in the local economy should allow local entrepreneurs and industrialists to take advantage of service provision and technology transfer opportunities as a result of proximity to the mining industry (Local Content Policy).

This means investment in infrastructure, research and human capital development, through conditionality for local content. This is what other regions have done; this is what the Government needs to do to make locals profit more from mining activities in terms of jobs, incomes and community development.

Within this paradigm of development-led mining, the potential of small-scale mining should also be harnessed and improved to improve rural livelihoods and integration into the rural and national economy.

Other factors such as the building of human and institutional capacities towards a knowledge economy that supports innovation, research and development and the promotion of good governance of the mineral sector in which communities and citizens participate in decision making and in mineral assets, and in which there is equity in the distribution of benefits are also necessary prerequisites.