Meet our man crush for this week, Alfred Akibo-Betts FCCA.

A man of digits who had a big vision for tax handling and consultation for the country. Growing from taxman to entrepreneur, Alfred co-founded a business school in the country’s capital, Freetown, to provide short courses for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Starting his career straight out of college in 2003, Alfred joined the newly created National Revenue Authority, an authority created from the amalgamation of different revenue-collecting agencies following a recommendation and financing from the International Monetary Fund, to see to the revenue collection and processing in the country. He got selected out of 100 recruits to work with the authority and he joined the Income Tax Department. His quest to know more in order to deliver more and give his best led him to study for ACCA Qualification which he gained in 2006.

Alfred grew in posts as the authority expanded. He joined the non-tax revenue department (responsible for collecting fees for mining licenses, passports etc) where he got new experience especially in the legislative process of his career. He moved on to become the Deputy Commissioner of Domestic Taxes in 2010 after the implementation of Goods and Sales Tax (GST) in the country, a post he held until 2018 before joining the Non-Tax Revenue department as Deputy Commissioner, and this time as an IMF tax assessor, which allows him to act as a short-term expert for the IMF.

However, he wanted more. He launched his own tax, accounting and advisory consultancy, The Betts Firm, during the COVID period. The Betts Firm is helping businesses and individuals navigate these difficult times by combining Akibo-Betts’ detailed knowledge of how the bureaucratic public sector in Sierra Leone works with the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Since he established his firm, he has liaise regularly with the Guma Valley Water Company, community players and other stakeholders in the delivery of the various Freetown Blue Peace projects, ensuring that vulnerable communities are supported and at the same time delivering business models that ensure the sustainability of the initiatives.

He is equally committed to promoting entrepreneurship. He co-founded Freetown Business School in 2017 to address a lack of affordable training and development programmes for managers and entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone where more than 1,500 students have passed through the school.

He was also a judge in the just concluded Orange Social Venture, a platform created by Orange Sierra Leone to equip and establish entrepreneurs in the country.