Chief Minister of Sierra Leone, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, has engaged the Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs, including officials of the Freetown City Council (FCC), on how the central government could support in the enhancement of service delivery for Local Councils.

FCC’s Mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, informed the Chief Minister that service delivery has grown rapidly in the past years, citing the Kingtom Treatment Plant which manages wastes and transform human wastes to briquettes, among other things.

“In terms of education, FCC has been complementing, monitoring, and collaborating with heads of primary and secondary schools with a gender responsive and digital lens. In the area of waste management, we have 22 tricycles and nine trucks,” she explained.

“Our engineers have done feasibility studies on how to reshape the cotton tree. Plans were underway to plant trees in the city for beautification.

Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs, Tamba Lamina, thanked the Chief Minister for engaging them in order to get update on service delivery, while calling on him to facilitate the timely allocation of funds to Local Councils so as to enhance service delivery.

Dr. David Moinina Sengeh said the meeting was to get a better understanding of the ways the central government could support Local Councils.

“There are four key areas that we need to look at, which include service delivery, the performance contract at ministerial levels, owning of the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2024-2030, and central government financing to the Local Councils in not only in the area of own-sourced revenue mobilization but through technology, and better cooperation,” he told his audience.

He said at the central government level, they have been engaging different Local Councils because they wanted to understand ways in which they can optimize service delivery, disclosing that they also want to see how government can support the activities of all councils because they are the primary vehicles to the acceleration of the MTNDP.

He noted that the cotton tree has been in a very bad shape since it collapsed in May last year, adding that he was pleased to hear that feasibility studies have already been done to reshape it.

He expressed the need for garbage collection and how it can be maximized especially during this rainy season so that city will not be filthy.

He cited that the 120,000 jobs that FCC has created for Sierra Leoneans was in line with President Julius Maada Bio’s commitment to create 500,000 jobs through the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) in his second term.

“We need more collaboration at the decision making level. I will engage the necessary Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for them provide the technical support to the FCC so as maximize service delivery,” he concluded