Texan faces deportation in Africa war crimes case

Sierra Leone native Samuel "Sam" Kambo looks like a snapshot of the model citizen: Honors college student. Exemplary employee. Family man. A leader.

But to the U.S. government, the Texas transplant's presence in the United States has suddenly become a matter of concern — 14 years after it first let him into the country.

Kambo — who settled in Austin with his Sierra Leonean wife and has four U.S.-born children — is in a jail in San Antonio fighting an attempt to deport him. This comes years after he informed the U.S. government that he was part of a group that overthrew a corrupt dictatorial regime in his native country in the early 1990s.

The government accuses him of participating in war crimes, which Kambo, 38, vehemently denies.

His unusual case, scheduled for trial today in San Antonio's immigration court, has pitted his supporters against an immigration system they accuse of unjustly punishing a man with good moral fiber.

"I don't understand Sierra Leone politics," said Robert Cullick, one of Kambo's co-workers at the Lower Colorado River Authority in Austin. "All I know is there's a man in front of me of integrity."

For years, the government opened the door for Kambo.

The State Department granted him visas to come to Texas to study and work after the 1992 coup. His previous employer applied on his behalf for his permanent residency. But when he showed up for his green card interview last October, immigration officials in San Antonio denied his petition, jailed him and put him in "removal" proceedings.

They cited as a reason his membership in the National Provisional Ruling Council, a military junta that ousted Sierra Leone President Joseph Momoh.

The government's immigration lawyers in San Antonio claim in their court pleadings that Kambo's presence in the United States is "an affront to civilized society."

The NPRC ruled Sierra Leone from April 1992 to 1996. In immigration court filings, Kambo maintains he quit the group in 1994 because of disagreements over how it was running Sierra Leone. He also argues that he wanted to make peace with rebel forces, but the majority in the NPRC wanted to fight.

In a 2005 letter to the government lawyers, the State Department said Kambo was one of eight soldiers in the inner circle of the NPRC.

"The ruling NPRC government took severe actions against rebels. Public humiliation, summary execution of prisoners and displays of rebel heads (and other body parts) were not uncommon," the letter said.

Kambo is not linked directly to any of the war crimes.

Kambo's attorney, Simon Azar-Farr of San Antonio, said Kambo readily admits he was part of the coup.

"He also agrees that a government makes mistakes in that maybe the proper attention is not paid to infrastructure or all of those matters, but in terms of the accusation that he was involved in genocide, torture or extrajudicial killings, he has always categorically denied any such claim," Azar-Farr said.

Kambo's wife of 14 years, Hanaan, said her husband did not have leadership roles while in the NPRC.

"He was disillusioned with the group. Things were not working out," she said of his reasons for quitting.

To those familiar with Sierra Leone politics, Kambo was the cool head trying to make his country better.

"Kambo was the only guy in the group who had the courage to quit," said Carl Schieren, who was a consultant to the United Nations in the 1990s and an expert on Africa. "That's something no one wants to recognize. He was on a much higher moral plane than the others."

Schieren helped administer a U.N. diplomatic program that gave scholarships to NPRC members to study abroad. Kambo was one of the scholarship recipients, enabling him to help pay for his engineering education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with honors. He later obtained a master's degree in business administration from UT.

At his job, Kambo excelled, was chosen for a leadership program and gained the respect of his fellow employees, who have been supporting his family financially and morally.

Hanaan Kambo hopes all the good her husband has shown convinces the immigration judge hearing his case that he should be allowed to stay.

"We don't know if justice will prevail. We're hoping. We're praying." Hanaan Kambo said. "We just want to be together as a family."

A Diplomat for the World Bank

It was a rare experience for George W. Bush: A major Presidential decision was greeted with bipartisan praise and international congratulations.

By picking former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on May 30 to replace Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, Bush made a symbolic and substantive statement that he hoped to unify the controversy-wracked institution and put Wolfowitz's divisive, two-year tenure quickly behind him.

Wolfowitz resigned his position, effective June 30, amid ethics questions raised by his role in securing a generous compensation package for his girlfriend (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/17/07, "More Problems After Wolfowitz").

An Expert in Diplomacy

Zoellick, like Wolfowitz, is known as an accomplished academic and a demanding bo, pss. But unlike the combative Wolfowitz, the prospective bank president has a reputation as an expert in diplomacy and international banking. Zoellick, 53, served as a top State Dept. official under President Bush, and the top Treasury Department official on international economic matters.

He was also President George H.W. Bush's top adviser for two Group of Seven international economic summits, as well as a managing director at Goldman Sachs (GS) and chairman of the company's international advisers department. His global economic expertise includes work on issues from Latin American debt relief and German reunification to Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization and restructuring U.S. aid programs for Africa.

Democratic Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, lauded Zoellick as "the right person for this job." Said Baucus: "It's hard to imagine a more intelligent, hard-working, and capable person to assume the bank's leadership at this difficult point in its history. Bob has the skills and the integrity to put the bank back on the right path."

Not Much of a Honeymoon

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised Zoellick's efforts to bring peace to war-torn Darfur, calling him a sensitive and caring person. Even Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Bush's vanquished 2004 Presidential rival, says Zoellick "brings a diverse range of skills and international experience to the position" and hopes he "can regain the confidence of employees and donor nations that was lost under the previous leader."

Kind words aside, Zoellick can't expect much of a honeymoon in his new job as the bank's 11th president in its 60-year history. Bank-watchers say he has a lot of work to do to soothe the hard feelings generated by Wolfowitz, whose role as an architect of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy rankled European allies and bank staffers. "His major initial challenge is to rebuild the morale of the organization and to bring someone with a strong management background in to put things back together again in a better way than before," says Edwin "Ted" Truman, senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Center for International Economics.

During the White House announcement ceremony, Bush and Zoellick both alluded to the recent divisions and the challenges ahead. Zoellick, said Bush, "has earned the trust and support of leaders from every region of the world." Zoellick declared that "we need to approach this task with humility and creative minds." He praised the World Bank staff that warred with Wolfowitz as "many fine professionals from all over the world."

"The World Bank has passed through a difficult time for all involved," Zoellick said during the nine-minute event in the Roosevelt Room. "There are frustrations, anxieties, and tensions about the past that could inhibit the future. This is understandable, but not without remedy. We need to put yesterday's discord behind us and to focus on the future together."

Major Stylistic Shift

That might be easier said that done. The bank's staff was in open revolt against Wolfowitz's top-down management style and had demanded his resignation. Many of its clients had chafed at Wolfowitz's efforts to combat corruption among recipient governments, arguing that the bank president had different standards for African nations than for Middle Eastern allies of the U.S.

And European governments had been alienated by what they considered Wolfowitz's lack of consultation. Members of the European parliament have speculated that the European Union and individual European governments might increase their own bilateral aid efforts to combat global poverty rather than continue their current levels of support of the World Bank.

Meanwhile, some international aid groups say the World Bank has been ineffective in its core mission of reducing global poverty. They say its organizational structure is too slow and bureaucratic to respond quickly in an era of cross-border economic threats including climate change, AIDS, malaria, cyberterrorism, and identity theft.

And while Zoellick's nomination represents a major stylistic shift from the Wolfowitz era, the incoming bank president has not signaled any policy changes, at least not yet. Indeed, Zoellick on May 30 indicated that he would continue Wolfowitz's efforts to combat endemic corruption among recipient governments, particularly in Africa.

Liberals Remain Skeptical

Zoellick did signal an effort to mend fences. He immediately announced plans for a series of meetings with bank employees, donor countries, and aid recipients to examine ways in which the bank could better fulfill his mission. Atop his agenda is rebuilding the confidence of wealthy nations he needs to donate $30 billion in coming years to replenish the bank's signature program, which gives interest-free loans to impoverished countries.

While senior Democrats and veteran European diplomats were pleased, some liberal groups were skeptical that much of substance would change. Jessica Walker Beaumont, trade and debt specialist for the American Friends Service Committee, said Zoellick has a history of "protecting multinational corporate interests."

And Asia Russell, director of international advocacy for the liberal group Health GAP, said Zoellick has in the past "carried water for Big Pharma" in trade talks. "We are very concerned that Zoellick will apply the same flawed, market-fundamentalist thinking to the major health policy issues that have made the bank so ineffective in fighting poverty."

Still, the author of an acclaimed 2004 book on the bank's history thinks that the damage of the Wolfowitz era can be overcome through skillful diplomacy and management. "This is a supertanker, not a small boat, and it takes a lot to sink it," says Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Vanity Blair tour: Tony to be crowned 'Chief' in Sierra Leone

Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Sierra Leone today on his farewell African tour - to be made a Paramount Chief.

His wife Cherie will look on as the villagers of Mahera garland him in honour of Britain's role in helping free the country from years of bloody civil war.

The 6,000-strong villagers elect their own Paramount Chief and are also allowed to choose honorary chiefs who deserve special recognition. As well as his garland Mr Blair will be presented during the colourful ceremony with a big stick, denoting his status.

Mr Blair's official spokesman joked: "But what he can't do is raise taxes or make people labour unpaid in the fields."

Blair arrives in Sierra Leone, where he will be 'crowned'

Mr Blair touched down at Lungi airport near the capital Freetown for talks with Sierra Leone President Ahmad Kabbah and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of neighbouring Liberia to discuss how to boost African peacekeeping capacity, and deliver on aid and trade promises for the continent.

Sierra Leone is officially the second poorest country in the world, according to United Nations' figures.

During his visit Mr Blair will announce he is keen to push for an international fund to support the rapid deployment of African Union peacekeepers within their region, the aim being they should reach troubled spots within the first 60 days of trouble erupting.

After his trip to Libya where he and Cherie met Colonel Gadaffi, Blair plans to fly to Sierra Leone, where he will be hailed a "hero".

The wartorn country's rulers plan to make the British Prime Minister a 'paramount ruler' - the highest honour that can be bestowed - for sending troops for sending troops to help end civil war in May 2000.

A grateful British public - who are paying for the trip - will doubtless be pleased to hear that no detail of the Premier's style and grooming is apparently to be lost to posterity.

For it emerged that among his entourage are a writer and two photographers from the glossy American fashion magazine Men's Vogue.

And if they aren't enough to capture every fascinating moment of the Blair progress, there are also documentary television crews from Bob Geldof's Ten Alps TV and production company Jupiter.

Two weeks ago, the novelist Martin Amis was invited to accompany the Prime Minister on his final trip to Washington as Premier.

He is understood to be writing an essay on the handover of power to Gordon Brown for the Guardian newspaper.

The Tories said it was increasingly clear that Mr Blair's last few weeks in power are being used to boost his profile on the world stage in preparation for his retirement career - which is expected to be rather lucrative.

Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "Tony Blair seems to have abandoned being Prime Minister and the hard-pressed taxpayer is having to fund his vanity tour of the world, which is aimed at the next stage of his career.

"He seems more concerned about how he looks in Vogue than tackling real issues at home. It's time we brought an end to this farce."

Tory leader David Cameron has accused Mr Blair of behaving like a "pop star" on a farewell tour and demanded he quits immediately in favour of Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron says Mr Brown has been left "wandering the country with nothing to do" while Mr Blair is jetting around the world "indulging his vanity".

The attacks are designed to maximise Labour's increasing discomfort over Mr Blair's protracted farewell from Downing Street.

He landed in Libya yesterday on the first leg of a whirlwind five-day tour of Africa which will also take in Sierra Leone and South Africa.

His valedictory wanderings have already taken him to the United States, France and Iraq, as well as a number of visits around Britain by helicopter.

In Libya, the Premier met the country's bloodstained dictator Colonel Muammar

Gaddafi in a Bedouin tent at a military compound in the desert at Sirte, about 150 miles south east of Tripoli.

The PM travelled there aboard Gaddafi's luxurious private plane. As he descended the steps of the aircraft on to a red carpet, he was mobbed by photographers and a military band played an out-of-tune rendition of God Save the Queen.

Mr Blair's 20-car convoy then snaked across scrubland to the site of the makeshift rendezvous, where the two men sat on ornate gilded chairs and chatted on first-name terms.

Mr Blair praised Gaddafi for becoming a crucial ally in the fight against terrorism - and urged Iran to follow his lead and come in from the cold.

He said Libya, a former pariah state, has provided "extremely valuable" information to help track down extremists plotting carnage in the UK.

Mr Blair also applauded Gaddafi - who gave the order that condemned 270 innocent people to death in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing - for dismantling his weapons of mass destruction.

It is the first time he has met the dictator since a meeting in 2004, arranged after the former godfather of world terrorism had finally accepted blame for the airline bombing and paid £2.7billion compensation to victims.

Mr Blair said: "The relationship with Libya has been completely transformed."

Representatives of Sierra Leone's 149 paramount chiefs, local traditional rulers in the former British colony, will name Blair one of their own at a ceremony in the township of Mahera.

"We have nothing, no money to give him but it is a way of recognising him as a chief of our nation," said Ibrahim Kamara, a local official in the village of tin-roofed shacks, spread among mango and coconut trees across the river from Freetown.

"All the paramount chiefs together with the head of state agreed on the gesture. It's the highest traditional honour," he said, as schoolchildren practised a welcome dance behind him.

Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives in Sierra Leone

British Prime Minister Tony Blair waves as he arrives at Lungi Airport in Sierra Leone, May 30, 2007.

FREETOWN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on Western countries on Wednesday to finance, train and equip African peacekeeping troops so they could intervene to end conflicts on the continent like the one in Sudan's Darfur.

Blair made the call a day after U.S. President George W. Bush imposed new sanctions on Sudan and sought support for an international arms embargo against the government in Khartoum to try to halt what he called the genocide in Darfur.

Visiting Sierra Leone on a farewell tour of Africa before he stands down next month, Blair was welcomed as a hero for sending troops to the former British colony in May 2000 as rebels advanced on the capital Freetown during a civil war.

In a special ceremony, he was made a paramount chief of the small West African state, gaining the title "Bai Shebora N'Torfla," which means "chief of peace."

At a news conference at Lungi international airport with the presidents of Sierra Leone and Liberia, Blair said he believed Africa had a responsibility to intervene in conflicts and humanitarian crises taking place on African soil.

"The African Union does have to have a stronger peacekeeping capability. We in the West and the wealthy countries have a responsibility to finance it, to train it, to make sure it is properly equipped," said Blair.

He said rich nations should reinforce this commitment to back African peacekeepers at the G8 summit in Germany next week.

Britain wanted the European Union to establish a $50 million draw-down fund to finance an African Union rapid reaction force, according to a note distributed by British officials. London was ready to commit $10 million to prime the fund, said the note.

CHANGE IN AFRICA

Blair said there was a reluctance to see non-African troops going into Sudan's western Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2 million been driven from their homes by a political and ethnic conflict raging since 2003.

He said that had the African Union previously had the capacity to intervene effectively in Darfur, the crisis could have been resolved "some years ago." The conflict pits Sudanese troops and allied militias against Darfuri rebels.

Sudan has been resisting international pressure to allow a proposed large U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, though more recently Khartoum has appeared to give ground on allowing the U.N. to bolster a struggling African Union mission.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said African governments now accepted they had to act in cases of war or humanitarian crisis.

"Look at the sea change in Africa: 20 years ago there would have been absolutely no intervention, military or otherwise because there was a standing African policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries," she said.

Blair, Johnson-Sirleaf and Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah later inspected a parade of local troops.

While Blair's critics say history will judge him harshly for Britain's involvement in Iraq, Sierra Leone is popularly seen as a high point of his foreign policy: his government cites it as a model of what can be done to save a failing state.

His popularity among Sierra Leoneans is high.

"Tony Blair is a hero," said journalist Augustus Kamara, who has named his son Tony Blair Kamara.

In the ceremony making him a paramount chief, Blair was seated on a wooden throne before some 20 traditional rulers gathered under two cotton trees at Mahera township, near Lungi.

A traditional brown robe was briefly placed on his shoulders. He slipped it off later, telling his hosts: "I think it looks better on you guys than on me."

Link to Blair urges West to back African peacekeeping force | Reuters.ca

Leary of Conducting Business Again in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country that has seen a generation of coups and social and political infighting. It went through a decade-long civil war that ended in 2002. The world felt sorry for this “God forsaken” nation and the international community came to help restore stability and democracy, and help it grow into a prosperous economy by utilizing its natural resources for its own good. The diamond industry and non-government organizations have played an active role in helping realize these goals.

However, despite these efforts, the current social and political establishment of Sierra Leone hasn't learned from history and ignore the workers, businessmen, and foreign governments that have come to their aid. The local powers that be in Sierra Leone – government, politicians, business or professional leaders – continue to pursue their personal greed at the expense of the long-term future of the nation. The corruption in the country is so deep-seated and wide-spread that it seems to be part of the people's psyche and consequently their establishment.

Krishan Tyagi of T&T Enterprises, UK

I recently heard about the case of Mr. Ramesh, a businessman from India who is based in the United States. He was swindled out of $1 million in Sierra Leone in 2006. His case is still going on in the Sierra Leone courts.  I can relate to his case, because now I have been swindled too.

My name is Krishan Tyagi, a businessman based in the United Kingdom and the proprietor of T&T Enterprises. The difference between my case in Sierra Leone and Mr. Ramesh’s case, however, is that my case hasn’t yet reached the courts. I went to Sierra Leone to look for partnerships to import rough diamonds into the UK but what I found instead was a system fraught with lies, con-men, and fraud. Once I tried appealing to whatever authority that I could find, I was repeatedly given the cold shoulder. 

My story starts back in January 2006 when I visited Sierra Leone. I met a very senior politician from the opposition party (APC) who was a registered diamond and gold exporter. This politician introduced me to a tribal chief and registered miner, who made me some offers in an import/export partnership. I subsequently returned to the UK to ponder those offers.

After many telephone conversations with the chief over several months, I returned to Sierra Leone in October, at which time he and I agreed on a transaction worth $60,000. It was agreed that once I transferred payment directly to the chief's bank account, he would deliver goods to the customs office (GGDO) to complete the formalities and send the diamonds to me in the UK.
However, after I deposited the money in his account, the chief withdrew the sum and disappeared.

I reported the matter to the Central Investigations Department (CID) of the Sierra Leone police, where it was revealed that this chief was a known criminal. The police officials even had nicknamed him "The Capitalist." 

Three weeks after that trip the head of the CID phoned me and said they had arrested the chief, who had made a statement that he supplied the goods to me. According to the CID, the chief produced “a document” before the police showing that I had signed the receipt of goods from him. On my retort that it was a false statement and that the chief must have forged my signature, the head of the CID responded that he also believed the document to be false. 

I requested that the CID officials send me “the documents” (or the copies/summary of those documents) submitted by the chief and the CID head agreed to do that. However, those documents were never sent.

Every time I was able to get hold of the CID officials on the phone, they had an excuse for not sending the documents. Once they said they didn’t have my address for posting the documents, which wasn’t true. In the next conversation, the CID official told me that they were certainly sending all the documents for my “perusal and reaction,” but the police didn’t have funds to mail the documents.
Finally after a few days in back and forth telephone conversations, I was told to travel back to Sierra Leone and have a look at the documents myself. 

After about a month of the incident and my October trip to Sierra Leone, the APC politician made contact with me again.  When I told him of the fraud committed by his friend, the chief, the politician was “very angry” and promised to contact the police and press legal action against the chief to get my money back.  However, after a few days of his promise of help to recover my money, this politician requested me to help his son secure a laptop computer as he was studying here in London.  I really was not in the position to address the request.  And, within a few weeks, this politician’s efforts amounted to only a suggestion that the Inspector General of Police (IG) re-arrest the chief and force him to repay the money, but they would need £1000 to cover his “costs.” 

Furthermore, my original intent to strike a partnership in Sierra Leone was at the advice of a Sierra Leonean friend living in the UK.  Since I made it clear that I would not give money (or a bribe) to anyone as had been hinted,  my friend and his cousins avoided taking calls from me.

Now, you may ask – why not just return to Sierra Leone to view the documents the police claim are at their offices?

Since the police had already gone back on their word, I felt that going to Sierra Leone on my own --and giving another response to the police-- would be a waste of my time. The UK embassy in Sierra Leone advised me to hire a lawyer to take up the case. So, I hired one of the top law companies in Freetown to represent me from the list the embassy recommended on Chambers Global Guide.  [Editorial note: Rapaport News did verify at the time the  attorney had taken up the case and said a writ was to be filed on behalf of this writer. No subsequent requests by Rapaport were answered by the firm.]

The lawyers told me that they had filed a civil case against the chief in the High Court of Sierra Leone and were taking up the cause with the police, who, in their words, had been bribed. They did nothing of the sort.  They never bothered to inform me of any developments, and, more curiously, never sent a bill for filing the case.

I asked a friend to check with the High Court officials, and my fear was proven true: There was no case filed on my behalf at the High Court.

When I called the attorney on this they said my friend had lied, but the firm did not provide evidence of filing or of an acknowledgement issued by the High Court,  or a copy of the writ signed by the defendant.  (The writ of summons to the High Court was supposed to have been served on the defendant  in the town – not at any exact address - and the defendant “wasn’t expected to sign” for a receipt.)  The attorney simply decided not to “represent” me or communicate with me anymore. 

To my utmost dismay, I found that not only was I defrauded by respected members of the diamond industry, I too had been ignored by the police and the top lawyers in the country who were supposed to represent my interests. After being taken advantage of in Sierra Leone, one can’t even get a case registered with the court - let alone find justice. 

I want to warn readers to be very vigilant, even when dealing with what appear to be legitimate and highly reputed people in Sierra Leone. My experience was not an isolated incident, as others going to Sierra Leone on business encountered the same fraudulent practices. Even a recent television show in Britain addressed wide-spread lawlessness and corruption across Sierra Leone.

I believe that if the social and political establishment of that nation continues to follow their myopic ways, they face losing the sympathy of the international community and with it the equitable trade of western businessmen. By making antagonists of the very people most interested in their economic resuscitation, Sierra Leone could well find itself isolated from the world again. In such a scenario, and given its history, who can rule-out another civil war?

Link to Diamonds.net News - Editorial: Leary of Conducting Business Again in Sierra Leone

Campaigners chide UK shops over Africa "blood" gems

DAKAR, May 29 (Reuters) - Britain's top retailers are not doing enough to prevent conflict diamonds from Africa reaching consumers, rights groups said on Tuesday, on the eve of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's farewell visit to the continent.

Global Witness and Amnesty International said a survey of 42 British retailers found more than three-quarters of them had no auditing procedures to curb the trade in illicit gems from conflict areas, known as "blood diamonds".

The illegal gem trade fuelled wars in Sierra Leone, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia for more than a decade. More than 4 million people died in these conflicts, which have now ended, although gem smuggling continues.

Blair, who made combating poverty in Africa a hallmark of his 10 years in office, is due to visit Sierra Leone on Wednesday on the second stop of an African tour.

The British prime minister, due to step down on June 27, is widely regarded as a hero in Sierra Leone for Britain's role in ending a 1991-2002 civil war, notorious for drug-crazed child soldiers who hacked the limbs off civilians.

"After all the promises the diamond industry has made it is very disappointing to find that retailers in the UK are still not taking the necessary steps to ensure the diamond supply chain is cleaned up from mine to shop counter," Amnesty's UK Business Campaigner Nick Dearden said.

Almost a third of retailers surveyed, including John Lewis [JLP.UL] and House of Fraser, failed to respond to repeated requests to provide information, the rights groups said.

The Kimberley Process Certification System was launched in 2002 to verify the origin of gems and exclude conflict diamonds from the market. Currently 46 countries belong to the system.

A report by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), an observer in the Kimberley Process, said conflict diamonds represented as much as 15 percent of the world's total in the mid-1990s but has fallen to less than 1 percent.

Campaigners, however, say the Kimberley Process is not tight enough to cope with a relapse into civil war in West Africa.

Although the region's intertwined wars of the 1990s have subsided, Ivory Coast remains divided between a rebel north and a government south as a peace process creeps forward.

A U.N. report concluded last year that Ivorian rebels were smuggling diamonds via Mali and Ghana to fund their operations, in violation of sanctions.

In Congo, fighting continues in the vast former Belgian colony's lawless east in the wake of a 1998-2003 war, and diamond smuggling remains rife.

The United Nations recently lifted a ban on diamond exports from Liberia, but Global Witness said diamonds continued to be smuggled illegally from the country.

Link to Campaigners chide UK shops over Africa "blood" gems | Breaking City News | Reuters.co.uk

Obasanjo Endorses Berewa

Last Saturday May 26th 2007, the outgoing President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo chose Sierra Leone as the country to which he made his very last official international trip and on the visit to Sierra Leone, he has endorsed the candidacy of the Vice President Solomon Ekuma Berewa as the next President of Sierra Leone.

The Nigerian President made his endorsement at the official dedication of the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Youth Centre at Koya in Rural Sierra Leone where he was a Special Guest.

Pre-empting his pronouncement of support, H.E. Obasanjo first stated how closely he had been following developments in Sierra Leone and that based upon the information he had, he was going to make a statement about the upcoming elections in Sierra Leone based on the clear pattern he has seen emerging in Africa.

He then categorically endorsed the candidacy of the Honourable Vice President of Sierra Leone, Solomon Ekuma Berewa.

"Insha-Allah, Vice President Berewa will be the next President of Sierra Leone. I say things as I see it," President Obasanjo firmly said. And in his now typical, well known frank style of speaking, he added that if anyone does not like what he has just said, that was the person’s business, and affirmed that he owed no apology for endorsing the Presidential ambitions of the ruling party or their Presidential aspirant.

Continuing, the President of Nigeria then proceeded to define the words ‘Change’ and ‘Continuity’ in the context of Nigeria’s and Sierra Leone’s local political theatres.

Obasanjo, Kabbah & Berewa chat at Youth Training Centre, Koya.

Obasanjo affirms that indeed what he had heard and seen with the chants of Solo-B along the streets was a confirmation to him that all the information he had been receiving about just how popular Solomon Berewa was in Freetown was surely true.

"Change is when one eminent personality will leave the seat of power and another eminent personality will take over his place. That is change; as for continuity, that means that the Political Party in power will continue to build upon their programmes and development aims of their countries. So, I have now defined Change and Continuity for you very clearly," Obasanjo lectured to a loud applause and hearty appreciation from the audience of mostly youths.

Obasanjo postulated that he was happy to see that Sierra Leone was learning from Nigeria where they had also gone through change and continuity in exactly the manner above that he had defined. He explained that in less than seventy-two hours from that time, Nigeria would be changing Presidents and he (Obasanjo) would hand over to the new President. However, he assured that his political party will continue to build upon their Programmes in the interest of Nigeria.

Obasanjo also strongly warned Sierra Leone not to learn the "bad things of Nigeria" but to only copy the good ones.

"I beg of you, there are many bad things in Nigeria. Ar say, don’t copy them or bring them to Sierra Leone. Only copy the good aspects of anything Nigerian," Obasanjo said in the local Pidgin English.

The outgoing Nigerian President also entreated young Sierra Leoneans to seize of the opportunity of a second chance in life.

"God is a God of second chances. You all remember the story of Jonah in the Holy Bible. If you missed your first chance at formal education for whatever reason, this Youth Education Centre is your second chance. Not everyone will get to go to University and even of those who go to University, not all of them will be likely to make good. However, this Centre and other such Centres being provided by your Government are to be taken as a means by which you will learn how to use your heads and hands to make good for yourselves and the society in which you live," Obasanjo impressed upon the young men and women present at the Youth Training Centre.

Obasanjo whilst recounting the efforts of Nigeria in Sierra Leone, assured the gathering that in the spirit of "Continuity", his successor in Nigeria will continue to pour in efforts for the welfare of Sierra Leone both before and after Sierra Leone’s next elections.

Obasanjo’s successor, President-Elect Umaru Yar’Adua will take up office as the next President of Nigeria tomorrow, Tuesday May 29th 2007.

After the Dedication of the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Youth Centre, the entourage moved on to State House where President Obasanjo was awarded Sierra Leone’s highest National Honour. President Olusegun Obasanjo in recognition of his service to the people of Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Africa and the World is now a Grand Commander of the Order of the Republic of Sierra Leone (GCRSL).

An Appreciation was rendered by Chief Justice Ade Renner-Thomas and the Citation was read out by Professor Kaikai, the Information Minister.

At the State House occasion, President Olusegun Obasanjo diplomatically reiterated his endorsement of Vice President Solomon Berewa to become the next President of Sierra Leone.

President Obasanjo flew out of Sierra Leone back to Nigeria that same day.

Link to Obasanjo Endorses Berewa in Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone News

Polis to Launch Development, Governance, Media Confab Report

POLIS Director, Charlie Beckett Wednesday disclosed that the report of the 'Development, Governance and the Media: the Role of the Media in Building African Society' will be launched on Wednesday June 27th with a panel debate and drinks reception at the Old Theatre, London School of Economics and Political Science, on 27 June 2007 from 4.30 - 7.00pm.

The report follows a high-level POLIS conference that was held on March 22 in partnership with the BBC World Service Trust, Open University, Concern, Panos, Communication for Social Change Consortium, UNESCO UK and DFID.

"POLIS, the journalism and society think tank at the London School of Economics and London College of Communication, has now been up and running for a year.

We'd like to take this opportunity to update you on our activities and let you know about what's coming up. The highlight next month is the launch of our new report on 'Development, Governance and the Media: the role of the media in building African society," he stated.

Director Beckett noted that the 'Development, Governance and the Media: the Role of the Media in Building African Society' tackled Media and power; Media and the Millennium Development Goals; Media in fragile states and the Impact of the digital revolution in Africa.

"Development, Governance and the Media' addresses four key themes: Media and power; Media and the Millennium Development Goals; Media in fragile states and the Impact of the digital revolution in Africa. Taking these contributions, the report puts journalism back at the heart of the debate and sets out a new paradigm of 'networked journalism' for fostering media development in Africa," he stated.

Beckett stated that the keynote speaker will be Eric Chinje, Director of African Development Bank Communications and head of the Strengthening African Media Initiative.

"We hope that you've enjoyed the events this year. We welcome any feedback or suggestions about where you'd like to see POLIS doing next. You can send your contributions to polis@lse.ac.uk or visit our website at www.lse.ac.uk/polis for more details," he concluded.

Link to allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: Polis to Launch Development, Governance, Media Confab Report (Page 1 of 1)

Blair makes farewell trip to Africa

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair makes a farewell trip to Africa this week, after using his decade in power to try to rally the world's richest countries to help ease the plight of the world's poorest.

The governments of Sierra Leone and South Africa have announced Blair will visit this week on one of his last overseas trips before he resigns on June 27 and hands over power to Chancellor Gordon Brown.

In Sierra Leone he is expected to be praised for sending British troops to the country in 2000 to help shore up the United Nations peacekeeping operation there and hasten the end of a civil war marked by atrocities against civilians.

The South African government said Blair would hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki and deliver a major policy speech on Africa during a visit on Thursday and Friday.

The visit is significant because it takes place on the eve of the Group of Eight Summit scheduled for Germany during which Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to press rich nations to fulfil aid pledges to Africa under a 2005 Blair initiative.

The British-hosted G8 summit in July of that year produced Blair's most vaunted achievements on Africa. Under Britain's presidency, the leading industrialised countries promised to double aid to Africa by 2010 and wipe out more than $40 billion (20.2 billion pounds) of poor nations' debt.

"By setting up the Africa Commission and using his presidency of the European Union and G8 in 2005 as leverage, Tony Blair helped to create an unprecedented global focus on Africa and poverty," Barbara Stocking, director of aid agency Oxfam, said in a statement this month.

CRITICS QUESTION FOCUS

Blair famously declared in October 2001: "The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it."

He raised Britain's spending on international aid and in 2004 set up an international commission to propose solutions to Africa's problems such as poverty, a falling share of world trade and a high death toll from conflict, famine and disease.

He also tried to reach out to African nations with a history of strained relations with the West.

In 2004, Blair became the first British leader in 60 years to visit Libya, sealing Tripoli's return to the international fold after it abandoned efforts to acquire banned weapons and agreed to pay damages for a 1988 airliner bombing over Scotland.

But critics questioned the focus and his success record.

Ishbel Matheson, of Minority Rights Group International, which works for the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, said Blair had focused too much on "Western charity, rather than tackling corruption and supporting African democracy."

"From Zimbabwe to Eritrea, from Sudan to Somalia, the West's disingenuous approach to Africa's governance issues is bearing a bitter fruit," she wrote in The Times newspaper on Monday.

Aid organisations say some G8 nations are lagging far behind on their commitments.

Blair tried to use Britain's diplomatic muscle in Africa, pushing for tough action against Sudan over the Darfur crisis and urging African leaders to pressure Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Despite the pressure, the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Darfur has not eased and Zimbabwe's economic freefall has worsened with inflation now at more than 3,7000 percent.

British newspapers say he may make another attempt to press Mbeki on Zimbabwe this week. His efforts so far have earned him the wrath of Mugabe who said in April he had beaten off an attempt by Blair to "get Zimbabwe to collapse".

Link to Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Blair makes farewell trip to Africa

Germany puts African poverty on front burner

BERLIN, GERMANY (Reuters) -- African poverty has climbed to the top of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's agenda for a Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Heiligendamm next month amid concern pledges to help the continent remain unfulfilled.

The summit meeting will be held June 6-8 in the Baltic coast city.

The G-8 is composed of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Merkel's agenda harks back to the partnership forged in Kananaskis, Canada, in 2002. At that time, the Africa Action Plan was adopted, which set out specific commitments in support of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Five founder members of the NEPAD Group -- Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa -- will attend the June summit as will African Union president Ghana.

At their meeting in Gleneagles, Britain, in 2005, the G-8 agreed to a Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) that envisioned totally canceling debts.

The heads of state also agreed on a doubling of development aid by 2010. This pledge will be reiterated amid claims from aid organizations that some G-8 nations are lagging far behind on their commitments.

In addition to existing programs designed to cut indebtedness and boost financial aid, Merkel's agenda includes strengthening dialogue with African nations.

Her government wants to focus on four main focal points: good governance, sustainable investment, peace and security and a strengthening of the health system. The latter includes measures to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Germany spent $10.35 billion in 2006 on developmental cooperation compared with $10.08 billion the year earlier. The United States reduced its payments in the same period by more than 20 percent to $22.74 billion.

Link to Germany puts African poverty on front burner - CNN.com

FOREIGNERS LEAVING SALONE

The New Citizen Newspaper received a phone call from an unanimous caller that a good number of residents of Sierra Leone were leaving the country on a daily basis for quieter and greener pastures and asked the New Citizen to investigate the claim by visiting local Airline offices and some western embassies near Freetown.
A team of investigators that went to the US Embassy near IMMAT, to ascertain the vericity of the claim that many residents of Sierra Leone were leaving the country in large numbers at this point in time, the team was not allowed entery into the Embassy premises because we were unable to give any tangible reason for wanting to visit the US Embassy, and that refusal by the Embassy security was understandable. The team left quietly for another diplomatic location at Spur Road.
We however saw a lot of cars at the US Embassy parking lot, an indication that there was some truth in the hint that many people were trying to leave Sierra Leone for a number of inexplicable reasons, before the next general elections.
At the British High Commission, the team noticed a lot of cars belonging to Lebanese businessmen parked at the parking lot and we managed to speak to one of them who disclosed that he was seeking to go to the UK for a short business trip. He preferred to remain anonimous.
Asked when he was expecting to return to Sierra Leone, the anonimous Lebanese national told the New Citizen team that he would be probably back early next year. We underlined the word ‘probably’, as very revealing, for a man who claimed that he was only going on a business trip. His ‘probably’ presupposes the absence of violence in Sierra Leone following the ensuing elections.
We, Sierra Leoneans, hope to put them to shame by the sheer magnitude of our resolve to have peaceful elections, come August 11 2007!
Asked whether he was traveling with his family, he replied in the affirmative, “in fact my family has left last month.”
Realizing the implication of his reply, he stared blankly at the sky for a while and added, “my wife is a Sierra Leonean, she is still here.”
When he responded that his family had already left, he was only referring to his children.
We had an easier time trying to see what was happening in local airline offices, where the covergence of airline passengers was considerably high. It involved mostly travelers who claimed to be on protracted business trips to distant lands where the enjoyment of peace and tranquility was assured under all circumstances.
One foreigner who did not want his name disclosed asked, “why are there no peaceful elections in Africa?”
I answered his question with another question, “is that why you are going on a long business trip?”
A question for a question seemed to have miraculously satisfied his curiosity about his assumed or predicted African election violence.
I took the opportunity to educate him on the many violence-free elections we had conducted in Sierra Leone and ended by assuring him that the next one too would be violence-free.
“Sierra Leoneans have come of age,” I told him even though I did not quite believe what I said about the maturity of Sierra Leoneans at election time, with all this shameless tribalism around.
I hope the thugs who inflicted suffering on fellow Sierra Leoneans during past elections are either dead and gone to meet the justice of God, or are now too old to revert to election violence again on Election Day, August 11 2007, so that the peaceful elections President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and MARWOPNET, ‘Women Of Substance Within The Mano River Union’ are praying for, can be a divine reality before, during and after the August 11 elections.
Secondly, I hope the departed thugs had impressed on their children the uselessness of maiming or killing their brothers and sisters, for no reason at all, at elections times.

Link to The New Citizen Publications

Hospital ship begins trip around Africa in Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) -- The world's largest charity hospital ship docked in Liberia on Wednesday to begin a mission to bring free health care to Africa.

The 80-bed Africa Mercy, a former Danish rail ferry converted into a state-of-the-art hospital ship, will spend several months treating patients in Monrovia port before moving on to Sierra Leone on a voyage that will take it around Africa.

An enthusiastic crowd greeted the white- and blue-painted vessel with its massive square superstructure.

With six operating theaters on board, it has the capacity to carry out 7,000 operations a year including, cataract and tumor removal, lens implants, cleft lip and palate reconstruction, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair.

It is run by the international charity Mercy Ships, which since its creation in 1978 has sent hospital ships around the world providing free health care and services to the poor.

Africa Mercy and her 400-strong multinational volunteer crew will take over from the smaller Anastasis, another Mercy Ships vessel which will be retiring later this year after serving more than 275 ports around the world over her lifetime.

"The Africa Mercy will now lead the charge to help end despair throughout the regions of Africa," Myron E. Ullman, III, Chairman of the Mercy Ships International Board, said.

Crew members waving the flags of several countries joined in signing and dancing at the arrivals ceremony at the port.

On hand to greet the ship on Wednesday were several former patients who had been successfully treated by Mercy Ships staff.

"I am just happy, I mean too happy for the Mercy Ship to be here. I was blind for five years. I couldn't see, but when the Mercy Ship (the Anastasis) came, I was able to see after they operated on me," 68-year-old Liberian Joseph John told Reuters.

Buying the former ferry and turning it into a floating hospital cost around $62 million, funded by donations and gifts-in-kind.

Liberia, Africa's oldest republic founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, is trying to recover from a devastating on-off 1989-2003 civil war that destroyed infrastructure and public services and killed and maimed tens of thousands of people.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female elected head of state, will visit the Africa Mercy on Monday.

Link to Hospital ship begins trip around Africa in Liberia - CNN.com

Nigeria`s Obasanjo honoured by Liberia, Sierra Leone

MONROVIA, Liberia, 05/27 - Nigeria`s outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Liberia and Sierra Leone Saturday to receive top honours for his country`s role in helping quell civil wars in the two west African states.
His swansong tour of the two west African nations comes three days ahead of the swearing-in of his successor, Umaru Yar`Adua.
Obasanjo first visited Liberia`s seaside capital Monrovia where he held talks with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who bestowed on him the Knight Great Band Order, Liberia`s highest civilian order.
"When we found ourselves tearing each other apart, you took the lead to put yourself, your nation, and your people at risk," said Sirleaf, Africa`s first woman president.
Nigeria, west Africa`s military powerhouse and one of the continent`s top oil producers, contributed the largest contingent to west African and UN peacekeeping forces in Liberia, wracked for 14 years by back-to-back wars.
Obasanjo then went on to Sierra Leone where he was given a similar award by President Tejan Ahmed Kabbah for Nigeria`s military involvement in helping stop a brutal 10-year civil war that officially ended in 2001.
Receiving the Grand Cross of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Obasanjo said: "It is my hope that the longstanding relationship between Sierra Leone and Nigeria will continue particularly with the incoming new leader."
Sierra Leone`s Revolutionary United Front rebel group murdered, enslaved and mutilated civilians during a decade-long reign of terror that killed up to 200,000 people.

Link to AngolaPress - News

Peace but no prosperity in mining towns

Corporations replace soldiers but poverty remains entrenched

MOHAMED SANO gave up farming three years ago and came to seek his fortune in the muddy pits of Koidu, the capital of Sierra Leone's diamond industry. He hasn't found it. Nor have most of the 200,000 other miners in Sierra Leone who search for diamonds with a bucket, a spade and a sieve.

"If I have enough money I will stop," says the 25-year-old as he stands knee- deep in murky water, swilling another pile of gravel around and around in his sieve. It is unlikely. He says: "I see small, small diamonds but never a good one."

Yet Sano persist with a gamblers' tenacity, hoping that today he might find the tiny glinting stone that will change his life.

Nearby another former farmer, 29-year-old Aiah Manjah, shovels piles of mud and gravel out of Congo Creek. He has not seen a diamond in a fortnight, but maintains: "Digging is how we get fast money, farming is too slow." He has been digging for the past 10 years.

Life has improved for these miners since the end of a savage civil war five years ago, one that was dramatised in the recent film, Blood Diamond. Now there are no drugged-up teenagers pointing AK-47s at the miners while they dig, stealing their diamonds to fuel a crazed rebellion.

But with peace have come international mining companies eager for a share of Sierra Leone's riches, and their growing control of the mining industry is changing it beyond recognition.

"Mining is the main activity in Kono," says Jonathan Shaka, the government mines engineer for Kono. "The problem is the shortage of land."

The large mining companies swallow up concessions far larger than the one-acre patches of land that the grassroots miners dig.

The biggest company is Koidu Holdings, owned by Israeli diamond magnate Benny Steinmetz. The contrast between this operation and the local miners could not be starker. Its four square-kilometre concession produces 11,000 carats of rough gem-quality diamonds every month, hauled out of a pit which, at 76 metres deep, is the world's largest vertical pit-mining operation.

At current prices these are worth an estimated $25 million a year, a large chunk of the $136m that Sierra Leone exported officially in 2006.

By law 3% of diamond exports are taxed by government, and one quarter of this comes back to the mining communities in the form of public projects and infrastructure improvements. In reality, say local activists, the miners see few or no benefits.

Cecilia Mattie, coordinator for the National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives says: "There are a lot of handshakes with the chiefs, who are getting cars and houses while the community gets nothing. We have these mining companies in this country yet there is no electricity and poor water supply, so why are they here?"

Patrick Tongu, field supervisor for the National Movement for Justice and Development adds: "The community are the real losers in this."

In the centre of Koidu, the diamond wealth is as elusive as the stones themselves. Rutted roads run between broken houses with neither walls nor windows. These shells of buildings are interspersed with the tacky, brightly painted shops of Lebanese diamond dealers who have monopolised the valuation, buying and trading of the stones for years. Now these middlemen are being cut out.

"I'm closing down next year," says one Lebanese dealer who does not want to be named.

Over a cup of sludgy coffee he explains that, since the arrival of the big companies in 2003, his business of buying rough diamonds direct from small-scale miners and selling them to exporters in the capital, Freetown, has been destroyed.

Showing off a handful of gems worth $11,000, the dealer says that he is only able to find a third of the diamonds he could buy four years ago. After 15 years in Koidu he is thinking of moving across the border to Liberia, where there is less competition. He adds, with a shrug: "I know diamonds, and it's a gambling business."

But the ones taking the biggest gambles are the miners. Sweating under the scorching sun, they earn an average of $1.50 per day plus a small share in any big diamonds they find. The bulk goes to their employers: men who can afford the $300 annual licence fee.

In a mining area called Block 14 - a barren, muddy expanse of crumbling cliffs, crevices and ravines formed by decades of mining the rich alluvial river beds - a row of five men standing waist-high in green water wash the mud from the gravel in their wooden sieves before squinting into the trays.

Shaka says: "Diamonds can make you a millionaire overnight." In this, the world's second-poorest country, every one of the sweating mud-spattered men is hoping it will be him.

Link to Sunday Herald: International: International

West must stop drug cartels overrunning W.Africa-UN

DAKAR, May 26 (Reuters) - The international community must act to stop drug cartels from overrunning poor West African nations and turning them into narco-states, the United Nations special representative for the region said on Saturday.

Powerful Latin American drug rings are muscling their way into West Africa as a back-door route into Europe, where the street price of cocaine is often three times as high as in North America.

The rich cartels are spending millions of dollars to establish air and sea routes and create drug stockpiles from the deserts of the Sahara to the steamy creeks of the Gulf of Guinea, alarming U.S. and European counter-narcotics agencies.

Two big drug busts of more than 600 kilos of cocaine in Mauritanian and Niger in recent weeks show authorities can stem some of the flow, but U.N. officials say a far greater volume of narcotics is getting through.

"It's a very large quantity -- according to U.N. figures, in the last eight months more than two tonnes," said the special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah.

He said the drug gangs had logistical, financial and communications means that were far more sophisticated than those possessed by the African states and they would be difficult to dislodge if they put down roots.

"Faced with fragile governments and huge areas, it is very difficult to control. We do not want to see a criminalisation of these states," Ould-Abdallah told Radio France Internacionale.

"Even better organised countries in Latin America have been taken hostage by these mafias. That is why we are calling attention to this."

In recent months, the U.S. navy has begun to refocus its operations in the Mediterranean southward to deal with the increasing threat of drug trafficking and illegal migration.

A navy ship will arrive on a year-long mission to the region in October, just as the U.S. military activates its new Africa strategic command, officials say. Counter-narcotics agents cite the case of Guinea-Bissau as a particular concern.

The bankrupt former Portuguese colony does not even have a prison to hold convicted drug traffickers, who are drawn there by the sheltered inlets and uninhabited islands of the country's unguarded coastline.

While much of the drugs is transported by sea, the army in Niger recently intercepted a convoy of vehicles heading across the Sahara -- indicating a possible land route as well.

Link to Reuters AlertNet - West must stop drug cartels overrunning W.Africa-UN

Rich Africa, poor Africans

In a century experiencing huge technological advancements and globalisation Africa is still struggling against poverty, wars, corruption, in a word, against underdevelopment. Responsibility for all these resides on national governments and on the International Community.

The idea that Africa is a continent with plenty of natural resources is unarguable. Yet people in Africa are characterized and battered by endemic hunger, genocides, wars, corruption, massive underdevelopment and all sorts of untold sufferings. Judging this beautiful continent from its natural resources, one would expect to see people cruising in an age of high mass consumption. Instead, Africa is full of people still struggling with their take-off process. Much of the population lies in poverty, hopelessness and underdevelopment that have remained a constant even in a 21st century experiencing huge technological advancements and globalization.

Under dictatorship,as under democracy, Africans have failed to tap their natural resources for the benefit of the general public. African governments have failed to come up with constructive reform powerful enough to shape a better and prosperous future for Africans. The dormant international community cannot be left out of the responsibility for Africa's underdevelopment and suffering. Despite all the beautiful tagged roadmaps, all development plans that have been drawn to drag Africa out of its net of poverty have failed. They have turned out to be sterile plans both in conception and implementation.

Several financial institutions have provided ideas, studies and all sort of recommendations to African governments to find the right way toward development. These institutions include the World Bank, IFC. Economic Commission for Africa, ECOWAS. Sadacc, and the AU. These ideas have not worked because they were not focused on the African concept of development but they had naturally an inherently western approach in themselves.

These unconstructive and sometimes unrealistic plans, are coupled with the political decisions made by African leaders to cover the interests of western multinational corporations, which has kept Africans in desperate poverty. Some international institutions have deceived many African governments to privatize their most important resources with the promise that it would increase growth and spread prosperity. An example of this could be observed in Cameroon where the national airlines company (Camair), the national electricity company (Sonel) and the national water company (Snec), just to mention some examples, have been privatized. This move has not been working till now so that increasing taxes on the working class has seemed to be the solution.

Natural Resources are important aspects of a nation's power. Africa as a whole has a vast amount of resources and these can allow this continent to be a major force in world affairs if they are well utilized. African leaders are still unaware that the natural resources of each African state are a source of power for its international relations. If the question is whether they are aware of this, then the answer is that their corruptive tendencies override their national interests of which they are sworn to uphold. Rather than exploit their natural resources to solve their problems, African leaders have opted for foreign aid that have plunged the continent in abhorrent debts in the long run. Africa is a continent that contains the majority of natural resources compared with other continents. Recent and continuing civil wars in Africa, notably, Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo, Sudan, Liberia,have been intensified because of its natural resources basically gold and diamonds.

Post colonial Africa is loaded with natural resources which can allow Africans to solve most of the African crises of poverty and famine from themselves without resorting to foreign aid, foreign grants and continued foreign loans.
On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the poorest place on earth, is a most profitable investment destination. It offers, according to the World Bank's 2003 Global Development Finance report, "the highest returns on foreign direct investment of any region in the world". Africa is poor because its investors and its creditors are so unspeakably rich. Western leaders are partly responsible for perpetrating this. I have been tempted to declare these leaders like those who constitute the G8 and some African leaders as a noose around our necks because the lethal economic policies that have already taken so many lives, through fro example lack of medicine, clean water, and for lack of justice.

According to Naomi Klein, in her article titled "Africa's Natural Resource Wealth Should Benefit Africans", about 70% of Nigerians still survive with less than $1 a day while Shell is still making super profits. Equatorial Guinea, which has a major oil deal with Exxon Mobil, "got to keep a mere 12% of the oil revenues in the first year of its contract", according to a report on the CBS news programme 60 Minutes -- a share so low it would have been scandalous even at the height of colonial oil pillage.

After analyzing the appendix below, listing resources country by country, it is possible that African people are still anguished in the face of this cornucopia of natural resources? This is unjustifiable. Why do Africans need western ideological help, often alien to them, to move ahead? Where is an African plan for development done by Africans and for Africans? It is time to adopt new development concepts and strategies with an African flavour (Abudu, 2002)
If the international community through big organs like the World Bank is interested in helping, why it doesn't try an alternative approach like that proposed by Teke Ngomba who says that both corruption and aid- conditionalities undermine the fight against poverty hence a mediated or negotiated approach is needed in Africa's case to assuage poverty

The idea that Africa is a victim of corruption, bad governance, debilitating diseases like AIDS and malaria is not new. It is time to get beyond from the constant dispute over the causes and effects of Africa's poverty. It is time to propose relevant and sustainable development programs that have Africans as the focal point. Poverty remains without doubt the greatest challenge facing African countries. The inability by most Africans to bridge the gap between availability and affordable has resonated to all corners of the planet. Africa needs policies and reforms that can lead to sustainable growth.

The road to progress and reduction of poverty must include measures that can guarantee, secure and maintain more economic, political, individual and social freedom. Sustainable economic policies or reforms must include transparent privatization, trade liberalization, lower taxes and also reduced government intervention, All forms of anti-trade or anti-business distorting policies should be eased, in an end to address the problem of African poverty honestly and practically. Without economic freedom, African countries will hardly achieve poverty reduction.

A prosperous economy cannot exist without this freedom and control over GDP, which is the case with most African nations. Despite the obvious benefits of economic freedom, too many African governments are implementing unsound, even disastrous policies that have deterred both foreign and local investment. In the face of this tight economic atmosphere, it is difficult for Africa to integrate the market economy. The repressive economic environment has led to less foreign and local investment.

Addressing the issue of local investment as a desideratum for economic prosperity, I think that apart from foreign multilateralism, Africans themselves have not invested enough in their countries. The rate of capital flight in Africa is more than any other continent. How can the continent develop when Africans are unwilling to invest their own money in their own continent? This inertia coupled with African governments insistence on A stultifying aND NOT conducive economic environment will only lead to more economic suffering. Africa needs a more liberal economic system /environment that will favor both foreign and local investment.

African leaders made significant commitments to transparent and accountable governance with the creation of the African Union (AU) and the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a comprehensive economic and political reform program. NEPAD included a significant commitment to good governance, peace, security and democracy as prerequisites for effective economic development. All these commitments have not been respected. African leaders have continued to embezzle public funds to the detriment of their national economies. It is time for the implementation and adherence to these cannons prescribed by the NEPAD and AU. Good governance equals transparency, transparency equals accountability equals economic growth for Africa.

Good governance = Transparency = Accountability = Economic growth
Inherent in this model is that good governance is a linchpin to Africa's poverty struggle. Of course if Africa has to experience good governance, an emergence of new leadership is needed to turn around a continent that many associate with poverty, wars, corruption and AIDS/HIV pandemic. Old style African leadership has to give way to new leaders.

Beyond sustainable economic reforms, more local investment, good governance and legal measures, I think the inculcation of a culture of personal and moral responsibility that recognizes the damage done to the common good by corruption, has to be an indispensable part in Africans. Africans should recognize they can prosper and uphold this responsibility. Poverty of the mind must not prevail among Africans. Africans themselves must live with the conviction that they can grow like, India, New Zealand or Australia all enjoying substantial per capita income after DE-colonizisation from Britain. This solution is an inward option to growth.

It is time for rulers like Paull Biya, who have spent so many years in power without achieving any significant progress for their countries, to honourably give way to a brighter perspective. The continent needs a new breed of leaders (not western puppets) who can recognize Africa's economic potential and make use of it. If some steps toward progress are not made soon, then Africans will become more and more a disillusioned population as a consequence of the disjuncture between availability and affordability.

Link to Rich Africa, poor Africans

I Would Not Be Speaking to You If It Weren't for the Risks Blair Took

To say Tony Blair is popular in Sierra Leone scarcely does justice to the intensity of feeling towards him in this small tropical corner of west Africa.
His decision seven years ago to send in British troops at the height of a brutal civil war is widely seen by Sierra Leoneans themselves as the critical moment in their country's salvation. It turned the tide in the conflict and helped bring an end to an 11-year nightmare.
The village of Mahera, for example, would almost certainly have been overrun in 2000 by rebels with a well-earned reputation for chopping off the limbs of children had British paratroopers not stood in their way.
The settlement is a dusty cluster of tin-roofed, cinder-block houses next to the airport. When the prime minister dropped by in 2002 he was mobbed, and it is clear that, though his star has long since spluttered and died back home, it still burns brightly over Mahera.
"He is our saviour! Tony Blair is our redeemer!" Kalie Bangura was moved to cry out at an impromptu rehearsal of praise songs the villagers have been practicing since the country's president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, promised this month that their hero would be returning.
"We would assure you and the British people that Tony Blair will get a massive welcome, a heroic welcome, when he gets to Sierra Leone," Mr Bangura, the revenue collector for the Mahera chiefdom, said. "If Tony Blair is not popular in Britain, we would assure you he is popular here. He did all in his power to see the war ended in Sierra Leone."
Mr Bangura was sitting on a low bench at the little village square that Mr Blair visited five years ago, and it has changed little in the intervening years. Hopes that peace would bring development in its wake have long since wilted.
A set of metal taps in the square that provided water for the whole village ran dry about two years ago, after a storage tank sprang leaks and was not replaced. Since then villagers have had to rely on a stream, even though there have been repeated outbreaks of cholera.
On the other side of the square is a forlorn half-built mosque, abandoned for lack of funds, sprouting grass from its foundations.
Travel dangers
At night the main source of light comes from nearby Lungi airport, but even that glow of modernity is deceptive. The road from the rundown terminal around the bay to the capital, Freetown, is so rough that the journey takes five or six hours. In the rainy season it is impassable. There is a ferry that takes even longer, and has few lifeboats or lifejackets.
The only other alternative is taking a seven-minute helicopter ride for US$50 (£25), in the knowledge that the Soviet-era choppers have been known to drop out of the sky. The British historian Simon Schama narrowly escaped death this year when the helicopter he was on caught fire and crash-landed.
That explains why VIP visitors such as Mr Blair prefer the president to meet them at the airport, and why the country is having such a hard job attracting tourists and foreign investors.
Visitors who do risk the short ride can peer down from the helicopter's open windows on to a city that - from a distance - looks largely unchanged from the 60s, when Mr Blair's father taught law there. The corrugated steel roofs descend in a cascade from the green mountains to palm boulevards along the beach.
Closer up, the reality is less inviting. Beneath their roofs the old colonial buildings are falling apart, starved of water, electricity or capital. The overcrowded streets are deeply potholed and traffic stands at a halt for much of the day. The city shoreline is choked by shanty towns and years of accumulated rubbish. Sierra Leone remains crippled by the same chronic ailments, poverty and corruption, that drove it to the brink of national suicide in the first place.
Britain has spent an average of £40m a year on Sierra Leone since the conflict, and remains by far the biggest bilateral donor. The country rests at the bottom of the global economic pile. It has the world's worst child mortality rate (a Sierra Leonean has a one in three chance of not surviving until the age of five) and ranks above only Niger in the UN human development index.
Traumatized
After the horrors of the 1991-2002 civil war, however, most Sierra Leoneans feel blessed just to be alive with their limbs intact. Freetown is still traumatized from the day, January 6 1999, when the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) - led by a former corporal, Foday Sankoh, and funded by blood diamonds looted from the gem fields in the east - took over half the city. The ensuing bloodbath left hundreds dead and a generation of amputees.
Moses Kamara was a 15-year-old schoolboy, when a gang of rebels grabbed him at random, and gave him a choice. "They asked: "What did I want to keep: my eye or my leg?" he recalled. "What could I say? I said: my eye. They cut off my leg."
He haunts the streets of Freetown begging with his fellow amputees. It is not uncommon to see young men missing both hands or legs. The only apparent motive for this orgy of mutilation was the desire to inspire terror.
The RUF was eventually driven out by a West African regional force, but a year later it was back on Freetown's doorstep and the city panicked. It was at that moment that Mr Blair sent in British paratroopers.
Augustus Kamara, a news editor for the state news agency, spent much of the conflict in hiding. Even today, he sobs when he relives the stress of trying to keep his family alive. "I would not be here speaking to you [if not for] all these risks Tony Blair took, because it was a political risk intervening where you know some of your troops will die," he said.
When his wife gave birth to a boy in 2001, Mr Kamara named him after his hero. Tony-Blair Kamara is six years old. He is quieter and more sombre than his namesake, perhaps a little weary of life as an embodiment of Sierra Leonean gratitude. But his dad insists the sad-eyed boy remains fiercely proud of his name.
When the Parachute Regiment was deployed in 2000, its primary mission was to evacuate British, EU and Commonwealth citizens and to patrol Freetown. But the operation's commander, Brigadier David Richards, was given wide latitude and found that the RUF melted away when it met a determined show of force.
Later in the year, a rebel gang calling itself the West Side Boys, who had been terrorizing the road into Freetown, seized a detachment of British soldiers and held six hostage at their camp deep in the tropical forest. On September 10, the paratroopers and SAS were sent in to rescue them.
The operation destroyed the West Side Boys as a fighting force, with the loss of one British soldier, and quickly became the stuff of legend in Sierra Leone. The mock-up of the rebel camp used to rehearse the assault is now a village in its own right - home to dozens of families. More importantly, the incident had a dramatic psychological impact. British troops were seen as virtually invincible, and the rebels melted away. Peace was formally declared in January 2002, but in real terms the war had ended months earlier.
Coming a year after the zero-casualty invasion of Kosovo, the Sierra Leone experience reinforced the belief in Downing Street that Britain could save entire populations at minimal cost to British forces - an assumption that clearly played a role in the decision to join the invasion of Iraq.
In Sierra Leone, the premise still holds. A small force of British soldiers has stayed on to train a new national army, and they are perceived in much of the country as a totemic guarantee of enduring peace.
"We have peace in Sierra Leone now, and Tony Blair made a huge contribution to that," said Warrant Officer Abu Bakerr Kamara. He pointed out that the new force he is training with includes former government soldiers and rebels. "We are all Sierra Leoneans," he said. "All these people are one army now."
With elections due in August, however, Sierra Leone is nervous. Most political observers are optimistic that any clashes between rival party supporters can be contained by the UN-trained police, with the army on hand as a last resort. But in a country with an unemployment rate of nearly 70%, including many former child soldiers, there are no certainties.

Link to I Would Not Be Speaking to You If It Weren't for the Risks Blair Took

From Sierra Leone to AFL

YOU might just be looking at the most inspiring sports story of the year. That's 11-year-old Andrew Jalloh, born and raised in Sierra Leone and having just recovered from stomach cancer, carrying the Paul Kelly Cup - the symbol of Sydney schools AFL supremacy.

Andrew and his twin brother Alex, the boy throwing the ball in the air in the playground of Belmore North Public School, left the African nation four years ago to live with their uncle - their father having been killed at war before they were born.

They arrived as refugees in Australia and settled in Belmore, and as boys do they made friends and played. Soon their athletic skills became obvious to everyone - these boys can run like the wind. Put a footy in their hands and it's "catch me if you can''.

And so Andrew and Alex became two of the most important members of Belmore North's Aussie rules team. A team that now just happens to be the best school AFL team in Sydney.

"They are incredible athletes,'' says coach David Unicomb. "They are very dominant within the team, and the other kids look up to them that way. You never have to ask them to get involved, they'll be into it and running around without being told to.''

Andrew is now in recovery from the cancer, but is still monitored closely. His frame is slight compared to that of his twin as a result of his treatment, but he is still tipped to be selected by one of Sydney's top sports high schools when he starts Year Seven next year.

So taken are the twins with the sport, they have started playing with Western Suburbs in the Sydney league, the club having covered their registration costs so they could play.

But AFL will have to fight hard to keep these freakish young sportsmen. Alex has also been chosen at state level in primary school teams in rugby league, rugby union and soccer.

For good measure, he also set two sprint records at last year's Australian Primary Schools Athletics Championships.

Not that he's about to boast about it.

"I play all sports _ soccer, rugby league, union, athletics too,'' said Alex. "You broke some records on the track Alex, didn't you?'' asked coach David Unicomb. "Yeah a couple.''

Belmore North has only played in the Paul Kelly Cup twice, and their record in the competition is flawless - two from two.

The school's team has a range of cultures and backgrounds scattered through its players, with students of African, Arabic and Samoan backgrounds.

Belmore North is now eyeing the state final of the Paul Kelly Cup, and Alex and Andrew will lead the team onto the SCG on June 18for the finale.

As they kicked a ball around at Belmore this week under blue skies, you couldn't help but wonder at the opportunity the boys now have.

Sierre Leone, where the life expectancy of the average male is 38, will forever be part of their lives - and now so will Sydney and a football.

Link to From Sierra Leone to AFL | The Daily Telegraph

Sierra Leone Muslim Jamaat Holds Islamic Conference

The Muslim Jamaat of the Sierra Leonean Community in The Gambia recently held its annual Islamic conference at the B.O. Semega Janneh Hall in Tallinding opposite Buffer Zone.

Speaking on the occasion, the guest speaker, Alhaji Sheikh Salim Savage, said Islam is the true religion of Allah and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the last prophet sent to mankind.

He therefore called on all Muslims to aid one another and always maintain peace, unity and love in their affairs, as well as foster understanding and cooperation among themselves.

Sheick Salim Savage also prayed for peace and stability to prevail in The Gambia and other parts of the world.

The ceremony was graced by Muslim leaders and the Sierra Leonean High Commission to The Gambia, H.E Foday Yumkella, Aja Maimuna Savage and other dignitaries.

Link to National News

Sierra Leone's poems of war

An important document of the tragic 10-year-long war in Sierra Leone exists and yet, until now, has had no international recognition.

It is a collection of poems produced by a group of Sierra Leonean writers who met regularly throughout the war.

They came together, wherever and whenever they could, to share their writing and also for companionship in the direst of circumstances.

One, Oumar Farouk Sesay, recalls that at the time, every individual in Sierra Leone was confronted with his or her own mortality.

"No-one escaped," he says.

"Status did not matter. I began to realise that soon we all would exit and then I began to consider what would be left behind. This is why I wrote My Will."

Dark days

The 10-year war was marked by horror difficult to comprehend.

Some of the atrocities included mass rape, brutal amputations, and the widespread use of child soldiers - many of whom were abducted and forced to commit these atrocities against their own families.

In the early stages of the long war, the physical fighting was one stage removed from these writers, as the capital Freetown was not affected.

But in the latter stages of the war Freetown was invaded and ransacked by the rebels.

This put the war on these writers' own doorsteps.

Dark days followed. All of the writers encountered violence.

One, Tom Cauuray, remembers being stripped naked by a group of rebels in the centre of town.

He says they were ready to kill him, accusing him of being Nigerian; the rebels had a particular hatred of the Nigerians, who made up the West African peacekeeping force, Ecomog.

Mr Cauuray describes how a group of evangelists, who happened to be passing, called on the rebels to pray and as the rebels were distracted, and some of them prayed, he escaped.

Aftermath of war

Five years after the war ended, Sierra Leoneans are trying to move on - but are still reeling from the war's dire effects.

Kosonike Kosso Thomas sums up the tension of the war's aftermath in the poem Trying To Forgive.

In their poetry, the writers all contemplate the way that poverty in the aftermath of war is restricting the lives of the population.

Mohammed Gibril Sesay's short poem Where Will Our Child Lie deals with this.

He says that a poem is "a rainbow," and about "controlled emotion."

"You can tell the individual has experienced pain but right now it is not overwhelming him," he adds.

"The poet is in the driving seat of his emotions."

Oumar Farouk Sesay believes that most Sierra Leonean writers feel an immense responsibility to their country, and want to use their words and their voices to tackle fundamental and ethical issues and problems in their country.

"We are the voice of the people," he says.

"We try to articulate what the illiterate in our society would like to say if they had our access to the written word."

 

MY WILL - OUMAR FAROUK SESAY

When I die
Don't bury my poetry
In the prison of your
Shelves under your beds.
In your cockroach
Infested boxes for mice
And cockroaches to dine.
Don't pluck the pages of
My poetry to wrap crumbs.

 

TRYING TO FORGIVE - KOSONIKE KOSSO THOMAS

I hear your plea but now I'm losing
The spirit to forgive,
Just when it moves through me
And enters right into my thinking lobe.
I sense it fail to instruct the bits in me
Which respond to acts of love,
And keep me trying to forgive.

 

WHERE WILL OUR CHILD LIE - MOHAMMED GIBRIL SESAY

Headside-footside-jamming-wall
The bed
Is workbenchwide
The room twice that
And my woman pregnant
Where will our child lie?

Link to BBC NEWS | Africa | Sierra Leone's poems of war

Steinmetz buys Sierra Leone diamond mine

Steinmetz, the Geneva-based diamond company, has acquired the Sierra Leona diamond mining company Koidu Holdings for $18.25 million.

Energem Resources Inc. said last week it had sold its 40% stake in Koidu Holdings, which owns and operates the Koidu kimberlite diamond mine and Tongo Fields exploration area in Sierra Leone to BSGR (Beny Steinmtez Group Resources), raising its stake in Koidu to 65%. The remaining interest is held by Magma Diamond Resources Limited, which is also part of the Steinmetz Group.

In a statement, Energem said it had achieved a fair price after “protracted negotiations” with BSGR, representing a $6 million premium over the funds invested by Energem since the recommencement of operations in 2003.

It said the need for the Koidu mine to proceed with a capital program of in excess of $45 million for underground development, would require substantial further investment by Energem without any prospect of cash flow to Energem for at least three years.

Other reasons given for the sale were “ongoing dissatisfaction with the cost structure and overheads of the operations” and the fact that it had a 5 year exclusive marketing agreement with Steinmetz Diamonds.

Link to Mining Diamond News: Steinmetz buys Sierra Leone diamond mine

Outotec expands heavy mineral sands processing plants in Sierra Leone

Outotec expands heavy mineral sands processing plants in Sierra Leone Outotec has signed a contract with Sierra Rutile Ltd., a subsidiary of Titanium Resources Group Ltd., for the design and expansion of Sierra Rutile's land-based processing plants in Sierra Leone, Western Africa. Outotec is working closely with Sierra Rutile Ltd. and is responsible for implementation of the entire expansion project. The new addition will utilize concentrate from two existing dredges and concentrators. It will first be upgraded using Outotec Spirals and a FLOATEX® Density Separator, and then dried. The dried ore will be sent to the new mineral separation plant for production of final products using advanced HE Rare-Earth Roll Magnetic Separators and eForce® High-tension Electro-static Separators. Outotec's laboratories in Jacksonville, USA and Perth, Australia were involved in the extensive testing program and flowsheet design. The expanded plant, with a design capacity of approximately 300,000 tpa rutile and 70,000 tpa ilmenite, is scheduled for completion in early 2008.

Link to Press Releases | Kauppalehti Online

Rosenior takes over Sierra Leone

England-based coach Leroy Rosenior has been appointed to take charge of Sierra Leone's national team for their next two international matches.

The former Sierra Leone international will be at the helm of the Leone Stars for the Nations Cup qualifiers against Togo and Mali.

"If I like the way things are run and the two matches go well, the move could become permanent," Rosenior told BBC Sport.

Sierra Leone FA administrative secretary Abu Bakarr Kabba says Rosenior will be assisted by former Brentford coach Paul Mortimer.

"Trainer Paul Mortimer will travel with Rosenior to Freetown on 28 May to start work," said Kabba.

Rosenior's first game in charge will be at home on 3 June against Togo in the Group Nine tie.

He replaces John Jebbor Sherington who will now be part of the new Leone Stars technical team.

The former West Ham player Rosenior was in charge of Leone Stars when they defeated English League One side Leyton Orient 3-2 in a friendly in London earlier this month.

Confusion still surrounds his future with Conference-bound Torquay United after the club issued contrasting statements over his position as manager.

Rosenior had reportedly lost his job within just 10 minutes of being appointed last Thursday after chairman Mike Bateson sold the club.

But managing director Debbie Hancox insists the former Brentford manager is still at the helm.

Rosenior has only one cap after playing for Sierra Leone in a Nations Cup qualifier against Togo in 1993.

Link to BBC SPORT | Football | African | Rosenior takes over Sierra Leone

UNDP Hosts National Forum On Microfinance

National Microfinance Forum takes place from Tuesday, 22nd to Wednesday 23rd May 2007 at Kimbima Hotel, Freetown. Hosted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the workshop is being organized in collaboration with KFW, UNCDF, Cord Aid and the Government of Sierra Leone.

The forum meets to evaluate the Microfinance Project 'Development of Sustainable Pro-Poor Financial Sector in Sierra Leone 2004-2009, 'which was developed by the Government of Sierra Leone and funded by its development partners (UNDP, UNCDF, KFW and Cord) in 2003. The meeting aims to harmonise concerns of stakeholders, and also build a national shared vision for the microfinance sector by discussing critical issues of the project implementation. The outcome of the two-day forum will form the basis for revising and updating the Project Document to align it with the strategies and activities of the national vision for microfinance.

The goal of the project is to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by reducing poverty by half by 2015 through the provision of increased access to competitive and sustainable financial services to poor and low-income people for micro and small businesses.

Microfinance has been identified as a major tool for poverty reduction in developing countries especially Sierra Leone whose economy is largely cash-based and with limited opportunities for financial services for the poor. To date, considerable successes have been made by expanding outreach to over 45,000 poor clients in rural and urban areas through Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and Community Banks. Over 90% of these poor clients are women, engaged in various economic activities in more than nine districts and Freetown.

Link to allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: UNDP Hosts National Forum On Microfinance (Page 1 of 1)

Ghana is West Africa’s best investment destination - Barclays

Over the last five years, Ghana has proved to be the best investment destination in the West Africa sub-region, the Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ghana Limited, Mrs Margaret Mwanakatwe has said.
"At the moment, Ghana's Gross Domestic Product is at a 16-year high, inflation is tumbling, the country is rated as one of the most peaceful in Africa and also has a B+ rating by international credit rating agencies", she said.
Addressing the Ghana Investment Forum in Accra on the theme "Ghana: The Golden Gateway to Africa," Mrs Mwanakatwe said the country since independence had experienced mixed development swinging between military and civilian regimes and adopting several economic adjustment policies.
The Investment Forum, which is organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GPIC) and funded by the Barclays Bank, aims at creating a platform for the business community and other stakeholders to deliberate on ways of improving trade and investment relations.
The forum, which also forms part of Ghana's 50th anniversary celebration, will discuss strategic areas of development such as agriculture, banking and finance and tourism.
Mrs. Mwanakatwe noted that despite the 50 years of economic struggles and numerous challenges, Ghana was steadily making progress and was poised at taking her rightful place as a lead country in the sub-region and a star on the continent.
She expressed optimism that the forum would lead to invaluable insights that would feed into the development of the private sector, particularly Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
She said: "As a bank we are passionate about the SMEs primarily because of how vital they are to the growth of the economy."
Mrs Mwanakatwe tasked the forum to help address the problems SMEs and other private operators faced in accessing credit facilities, lack of proper guidance and direction as well as skills and competency building.
She said she was happy that the forum, which was constituted by a cream of top-level corporate practitioners from the local and international investment think-tanks and resourceful Ghanaian entrepreneurs, would explore ways of attracting increased investment flow.
Mrs Mwanakatwe said Barclays was proud to be associated with the Ghana Investment Forum, which was believed to working towards improved economic policies and programmes and ultimately improved private sector performance.
Mr E.R. Ofori, Board Chairman, GPIC said domestic and foreign investment were critical to development and that the council was working towards harnessing resources in those areas for accelerated economic progress.
He stated that as part of the forum, banana investment opportunities would be highlighted to showcase the area to the business community.