New York — President Ernest Bai Koroma has told Sierra Leoneans in the USA, where he is attending United Nations general assembly meeting, that the African Minerals prospected five billion tons of iron ore deposit in Tonkolili district would not be a curse to the country.
He also said Sierra Leone needs her people more than America does as he made an appeal to prompt them to go back home during a town hall meeting at the College of Staten Island in New York.
He outlined the problems his government inherited citing the Human Development Index, where Sierra Leone is still at the bottom. "Sixty percent of our population still lives under a dollar a day," he said and expressed same sentiments about illiteracy, Infant and maternal mortality rates, a bad economy, deplorable roads, combating corruption, indiscipline and bad behavior, and non-cooperation by donor countries and partners amongst scores of other issues.
"This is why we have committed ourselves to the platform of change; the basis for which we were voted," the President said when highlighting the gains made by his government in the two years in power. He said his government has committed itself to delivering on the election campaign promises by "quickly putting in place our priorities".
President Koroma also spoke on the economy, which he said was getting by with donor confidence rising. Persons who had no or little interest in Sierra Leone are now coming forward to offer services, he said. He named former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and founder of the Soros Foundation, George Soros among the host of Foreign Investors and Partners in the nation's development process.
He said Sierra Leone has shot to sixth place for a business-friendly environment in West Africa.
"We are making some progress," he said and talked about the mining sector's ups and downs and expressed hope that the five billion tons of prospected Iron Ore in the Tonkolili District (said to be potentially the biggest deposit in Africa) will be a blessing this time around and not a curse.
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5 billions tons is a lot of iron ore. More than Sierra Leone needs for its own purposes. So, when it is developed, it will be developed for export. Therein lies the danger. If your economy centers around the export of iron and/or oil, it will become addicted to imports and be devastated when the resource is exhausted, or the world market changes. Develop this slowly. There will be a hungry market for iron ore 500 years from now, so there is no hurry. You will benefit your nation more by employing your labor to produce the goods and services that you need: food, clean water, sanitation, roads, better housing.
With wisdom, patience and effort, you can make this iron a blessing. If you let yourselves hurry, it will become a curse.
Certainly so mr steve klaber!We need to cultivate this mineral resource or develope it slowly.Do not follow the Liberian pattern of the great ore deposit of Liberia.Liberia's ore,is all for export,with no steel factory in the country for local consumers.Even a piece of steel rod you need,will have to be imported into the country by Lebanese or Indian merchant traders.With the vast rubber plantations,there's not a single company that produces rubber materials or tyres.With the huge timber exported to other countries, there not a single plawood factory.All have to be imported into the country by those crook merchants.What a shame for Africa as a whole.
There's rutile in Sierra Leone.There is not a single factory in Sierra Leone that is producing paint.Most of the houses in the city are unpainted for years now.With this 5 billion tons of ore,there'll still not be any good changes for Sierra Leoneans.The only change that I envisage,is that it will fatten the corrupt pockets of Government Officials.We're waiting to see what happens next with those discoveries...oil,iron ore or maybe more diamonds again.
Indeed,it will become a curse to Sierra Leoneans,if proceeds from this so-called ore is not used for the betterment of the Sierra Leonean people.It'll become a great curse if Sierra Leoneans keep tumbling in slums of Kroobay,waterloo,king Jimmy,Bomeh area,while Government Officials continue to enjoy and benefit from the resources of the Country that is suppose to be all Sierra Leoneans. This's a great wake up call for our Leaders in Africa.
I could not agree more, finally we Sierra Leoneans are beginning to see the light! For years it never make sense to me why Sierra Leone has to export all her raw materials overseas and then we have to buy it back at a high prices when ever we want to do any form of constructions?
Its a shame that a country like Sierra Leone that is blessed with Iron, gold, diamond, bauxite and rutile does not have not one single mineral processing factory in the country after almost fifty years of Independence!
All Sierra Leoneans should urge President Koromas government that any new investors or investment companies that want to mine our minerals should have factories built to process these same minerals in the country not overseas. Why should these jobs be created overseas when it can be done locally especially when we have massive unemployment in the country?
Reginald Smart Boston, MA USA