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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has held high-level discussions with a Moroccan delegation aimed at expanding access to scholarships and strengthening vocational training opportunities for Sierra Leonean youth.
The meeting, held on February 2, 2026, brought together officials from the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI) and the Office of Vocational Training and Employment Promotion (OFPPT), as part of efforts to address the low utilization of Moroccan government scholarships and expand technical skills development.
Opening the discussions, the Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alan C. E. Logan, commended the long-standing bilateral relations between Sierra Leone and Morocco. He described the engagement as a practical outcome of sustained cooperation and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to aligning scholarship and training opportunities with Sierra Leone’s national development priorities.
“This meeting is the fruit of cooperation between our two nations,” Logan said, assuring the Moroccan delegation of Sierra Leone’s political will to identify priority areas in education and vocational training that directly support national development programmes.
Leading the Moroccan delegation, the Deputy Head of Mission at the Moroccan Embassy in Freetown, Hamza Chbihi, reaffirmed the strong diplomatic ties between the two countries. He explained that the engagement followed a request from Sierra Leone to maximize the benefits of Morocco’s scholarship offers, noting that cooperation between both nations remains strong and mutually beneficial.
A key focus of the meeting was the underutilization of Moroccan scholarships. Abdelhak Ben Raiss, Head of Academic Cooperation at AMCI, disclosed that Morocco offers 105 scholarships annually to Sierra Leone — 75 for academic programmes and 30 for professional training — but many of these opportunities remain unfilled.
“We are ambitious to find solutions this week so Sierra Leonean students can fully benefit,” Ben Raiss said, adding that technical meetings would be held to agree on concrete steps to improve uptake.
Discussions also emphasized vocational training as a critical pathway to youth employment. Mohamed Oulhazzan, Director at OFPPT’s Electrical Engineering Skills Development Center, explained that the institution specializes in assessing national skills needs and designing targeted training responses.
He highlighted OFPPT’s role as Morocco’s largest public vocational training provider, with more than 500 institutions training about 400,000 learners annually. Officials further outlined structured vocational pathways available to Sierra Leoneans, including qualified, technician, and specialized technician levels, as well as short-, medium-, and long-term programmes linked to labour market demands.
The engagement marks a significant step toward translating strong diplomatic relations into practical education and skills development opportunities, aimed at equipping Sierra Leonean youth with competencies required in today’s economy.
