Minister of Information and Civic Education Chernor Bah convened a Press Conference that featured the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources Julius Mattai, Attorney General Mohamed-Lamin Tarawalley Esq., and Minister of Transport and Aviation Col. (Rtd) Alhaji Fanday Turay to explain clearly to the public about the Rail and Port agreement.

Attorney General Mohamed Lamin Tarawalley disclosed that the Government of Sierra Leone has signed an agreement for the Rail and Port with Kingho Rail and Port. The Agreement was approved by Cabinet.

Government of Sierra Leone indeed signed an agreement with Arise but Arise failed to satisfy the terms and conditions in the contract. The condition Precedents was not met by Arise so the agreement was mutually terminated.

The satisfaction date to trigger the enforcement of the Agreement with Arise was on the 9th of July 2023. Failure by their side resulted in the Government signing an agreement with Kingho to avoid a vacuum.

The Minister of Transport and Aviation informed the public that there is a plan to create a specialized Semi-Autonomous Agency that will regulate not only railways but also cable cars. He assured that this project will create jobs and capacity building.

Minister Alhaji Fanday Turay allays fears of monopoly in the use of the rail and port. He said in the contract, Kingho is required to have a minimum 10% capacity for the use of the rail by another interested party.

Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources Julius Mattai said the rail and port were in total ruins until Kingho came and invested over $100 million to revamp them. He said the decision taken by the government is in the best interest of the country.

The Rail at Pepel is constructed for cargo carriages and not for passenger services.

Arise IIP still maintains the Industrial Zone in Koya and the government looks forward to the actualization of that project.

©Ministry of Information and Civic Education