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The National Sports Authority (NSA) on Thursday 27th June, 2025, brought together eighty sports administrators from 59 sporting bodies to commence institutionalization process of the Sierra Leone Anti-doping Authority and Position of Trust (POT).
Held at the City Hall View Conference Room in Freetown, the one-day engagement set clear guidelines on the policies and code of conduct that relate to the POT regulation and the Anti-doping Authority as provided for under section 22 of the NSA Act.
The move will help check abuse in sport, eliminate cheating, prevent athletes from health risks, protect the integrity of sports, among others.
Speaking at the consultative meeting, Dr. Brian Conton, representative from Anti-doping Sierra Leone, said independence guarantees the operation of all anti-doping bodies. “Sierra Leone was about to be banned last year November for have not conducted any anti-doping activities,” he told the meeting.
On his part, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee, Hon. Hindolo Ngevao, remarked that doping undermines the spirits of fair-play and the competence of those who compete genuinely. He admonished athletes to break the chain of addiction.
While the Executive Director of NSA, Dr. Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq, was speaking, he said athletes, footballers in particular, take performance enhancement drugs for different reasons. “We have an international obligation to set up an anti-doping agency. It is important for us to have a clean sport,” he pointed out, calling on sporting organizations to refrain from monetizing engagements of this nature as Government is poised to save athletes, create jobs for young people, and support sporting bodies based on merit.
In her keynote address, the Minister of Sports, Madam Augusta James-Teima, thanked the NSA Boss for rolling out the anti-doping initiative and appealed to sport stakeholders to treat the session seriously.
The National Sports Authority is an agency of Government established by an Act of Parliament with the mandate to promote, encourage, develop, and supervise all sports and sporting m activities in Sierra Leone and to provide for other related matters.
