On December 21, 2022, President Julius Maada Bio and the First Lady went to the Kono Annual Conference on December 21, 2022, at the Thomas Saquee Resource Center out of koidu City, kono.

The BBC’s Umaru Fofana, the program’s moderator, greeted everyone and declared the Kono Conference to be officially begun.

Kono stakeholders were in attendance, and they all expressed gratitude to the President for supporting the Kono people as well as the First Lady for her dedication to keeping Kono in her heart for growth. They declared, “ we’re a proud parents to have produced the best First Lady our country has ever seen “

Her Excellency, the First Lady, Dr. Fatima Maada Introduced the key note speaker of this year’s Kono conference, who happened to be the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, her Excellency started by thanking God for the opportunity and many thanks to the President for entrusting confidence in her to represent and present a resolution at the United Nations; she said when I went to that place, I had no faith, but in me, I said, “I have Kono’s blessing, I have my parental blessing from Kono, and I have a blessing from my darling husband, the President.” Just after that thinking, 105 countries successfully approved the resolution. She continues to advise the people of Kono to stay away from violence in the upcoming election and focus on putting the interests of the country before any personal interests. I want to say thank you, President Bio. If you do not give me the space I need, my Kono people will not celebrate me here today. Her Excellency ended by presenting the President to the Kono people with a loving message: “Kono people, I present to you all your darling son-in-law.” The President, my darling husband, President Julius Maada Bio

H.E. Supremo, Julius Maada Bio, expressed his happiness to the Kono people and said this program will never be successful without my presence, and I appreciate you all for your endless commitment. Thank you to all of you. We’re not only here to celebrate but to intensify our economy and social human capital development strength as a nation. My government has succeeded in delivering many things for the nation, and Kono is not an exception, especially the flagship program and quality education program. He ended by promising the Kono people more development before 2028. Let’s work towards the development of the themes of education, which is my flagship, and agriculture, which is next to my heart.

The idea for the conference was initiated by Kono diasporans in the UK. After the maiden edition in 2016 in London, the second edition was held in Washington, D.C., in the United States the following year. It was then relocated to Sierra Leone, and the third edition was held in Koidu in 2018, and the main brain behind this was Her Excellency the First Lady.

Umaru Fofana BBC reporter said, the President and his wife have said it all about education and a peaceful election, so if anybody comes here with different things, please ignore him.

The theme for this year’s 2022 Kono conference is “Education and Agriculture.”