The government of Sierra Leone is determined to build a new international airport in the north of the country, financed by a whopping $400 million loan from China. Opposition to this policy decision is strong, including the Word Bank who says that the government simply cannot afford to commit the nation to further debt, with an uncertain economic outlook.
After fifty-five years of gaining independence from British colonial rule, and in spite of huge natural resource revenue potential of over $2 billion a year – with a population of just over six million people, Sierra Leone is rated as one of the poorest nations in the world.
Less than half the country’s adult population would live to see their 51st birthday; it’s health service is a death trap, because of the lack of trained doctors, poorly equipped hospitals, and poor access to medicines; education is sub-standard, compared to other countries in Africa; fewer than 30% of the population have access to electricity and clean drinking water.
Sierra Leone is one of the most dangerous countries for a woman to give birth, with a survival rate of less than 80%. Survival rate for newly born children is even more appalling – with more than 30% unlikely to see their 5thbirthday.
Unemployment in Sierra Leone is disturbingly high. Over 70% of the economically active population are out of work, and more than 60% of youths unlikely to have ever worked. Less than 30% of the population can read and write.
The country’s economy has seen its fair share of bad political management, civil war and health epidemic – Ebola. The economy is struggling to survive due to lack of investments and competition from neighbouring countries in attracting foreign investors.
Sierra Leone is massively dependent on foreign aid and debt to make up its annual budget deficit. The country cannot feed itself. Millions of dollars are spent every month on importing its staple food – rice, which it can, not only grow on its doorstep for domestic consumption, but has the potential to feed the rest of West Africa.
President Koroma and senior ministers believe that to fix Sierra Leone’s economic and social problems, there is the urgent need for a new international airport costing $400 million – a decision that most analysts and the World Bank say is seriously misguided. The country simply cannot afford it, nor is the need real.
But what is the real story behind this airport project?
The country’s existing airport -the Lungi International Airport, has the capacity to receive thousands of passengers a day, but daily passenger arrivals is less than 200.
The airport which is now being partly managed by a British company, has received millions of dollars from the World Bank to pay for expansion, upgrading of the runway and facilities to bring it up to international standards. Still, passenger numbers are struggling to rise.
At a cost of $400 million, and with the competing priorities facing the government – health, access to clean water, provision of electricity, education, housing, road renewals and improvement, waste management and sanitation – why is the Koroma government determined to secure a loan package from China to pay Chinese workers to build a new international airport that will be managed by the Chinese for a fee?
Writing in a three part series of articles for the Sierra Leone Telegraph, Saad Barrie discusses the pros and cons of building a new airport, as well as the political and economic factors that are driving this decision. This is part one of Saad Barrie’s analysis:
The Mamamah Airport and New City is the flagship infrastructure project in Sierra Leone’s current medium term development plan, the Agenda for Prosperity. The indicative cost of the Mamamah Project is US$481 million. The airport alone is estimated to cost at least US$300 million (about 6% of GDP in 2014).
The proposed new airport has been harshly criticised by some of its key stakeholders either for its location, huge cost, or method of financing and the lack of transparency in the negotiations with its financiers and contractors.
Many Sierra Leoneans believe the country does not need a second airport. Not with the perennially low number of flights in and out of the country; total arrivals by air is less than one hundred thousand yearly at its peak.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the country’s main economic advisers and lenders, have weighed in on the debate, saying “now is not the time for a new airport” and that the government “has misplaced priorities” – or words to that effect. The country’s economy has been in dire straits since mid-2014.
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Telegraph Newspaper
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