On December 21, 2022, His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio and First Lady Fatima Jabbe Maada Bio issued an appeal for the peace, unity, and growth that Kono District has been experiencing peacefully for the previous four years to continue.

Their appeals were made while engaging with Kono’s traditional and political leaders, as well as its residents, at the conference’s fourth iteration, which had the dual topics of “education” and “agriculture.”

The keynote speaker was H.E. President Bio, who was introduced by the First Lady, a native of Kono District.

At the Kono Conference, First Lady Dr. Fatima Maada Bio made a heartfelt plea for the continuation of the Unity, Stability, and Peace that Kono District has enjoyed for the past four years. She argued that these conditions were necessary for Kono’s development and the advancement of Kono’s children.

First Lady Fatima Maada Bio (nee Jabbe) expressed her gratitude to the Kono district, where she spent her formative years as a child with her parents. She said that, as First Lady, she is aware that Kono compatriots will support her in all of her endeavors with their blessings and prayers.

First Lady Fatima Maada Bio remembered taking her husband to visit the Kono people in 2014 while he was campaigning to be elected, where he was given a long list of things that were required in Kono. She claimed that her husband’s 2018 Campaign Manifesto addressed each of those needs. First Lady Maada Bio said with pride that since her husband was elected in 2018, he had kept every promise he made and then some.

Therefore, First Lady Fatima Maada Bio urged the Kono Conference to ensure that they also made a list of all of their current aspirations so that, at the conclusion of the Kono Conference’s discussions, the Kono People could present their aspirations to the Head of State of Sierra Leone for his consideration.

President Julius Maada Bio underlined the significance of peace, stability, and unity in Kono after taking the podium. He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to deliver the keynote address at such a prestigious event. He expressed his sincere gratitude for the unwavering support that the Kono people have shown for him, his entire family, and the government he leads.

In addition to attending the Kono Conference, His Excellency stated that he and his wife would be stepping up their collaboration with the district on social development, human capital development, economic growth, and other welfare-related concerns.

Speaking more specifically about welfare issues, H.E. Bio stated that his wife, First Lady Fatima Maada Bio, would take advantage of their trip to Kono to officially open a number of recently constructed mosques in various Kono District locations. He claimed that this was the case because religious welfare was significant to humanity.

President Bio reaffirmed his wife’s assertion that Kono has benefited from all of his government’s significant developmental accomplishments, including his signature program of Free Quality Education and his wife’s Hands Off Our Girls Campaign.

His Excellency gave the people of Kono his word that he would always pay close attention to them and work to further their development for as long as he was President of Sierra Leone. However, he urged Kono’s residents to band together and cooperate on the issues of agriculture and education. He claimed that those mainframes are the ones along which Kono will develop and advance.

The Kono Conference, which was held for the fourth time in this century at the Thomas Saquee Resource Centre in Koidu City, brought the people of Kono together to advance everything related to the development of the Kono District and, consequently, the entire country.

The Kono Conference was founded by Kono Diasporans in the UK; the first edition was held in London in 2016. According to organizers, this is how the Kono Conference got its start. The following year, the second edition took place in Washington, D.C., while the third edition was then hosted by Sierra Leone and held in Koidu, Kono. However, the COVID-19 epidemic prevented the Kono Conference from taking place again until this fourth edition was convened. The current Conference will end on Friday, December 23, 2022, after three days.