President Kabbah Visits Magbass Sugar Complex
By Marian Samu

Sierra Leone after the almost eleven years of civil war has been undergoing a stage of economic reconstruction and transformation unequal to any time in its history. Since the war broke out in 1991, very little or no produce of substantial economic viability had left the shores of Sierra Leone as export.

The ushering in of peace and stability in 2002 saw very few well meaning investors and development partners who although they had suffered extreme loses during the war had come back to rejuvenate their investment in Sierra Leone. One such investor is the Chinese Company, the Magbass Sugar Complant. The Magbass Sugar Complant recommenced its activities in 2003 with a complete rehabilitation of its vandalised sugar production complex and sugar cane cultivation in Mamuntha section, Magburaka in the Tonkolili District. With three years of hard work, the Magbass Sugar Complant is fully operational, and Sierra Leone is now among the sugar exporting countries of the world. A total of 5,800 tons of sugar is now ready for export to Europe.

The President, Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah visited the Magbass Sugar Complant on Monday, 24th April to see progress the factory had made so far.
On arrival at the Complant, President Kabbah, accompanied by the General Manager and the Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone was taken on a conducted tour of the sugar cane farm and the sugar production factory where he was shown the complete processing line from the sugar cane to the finished bagged sugar product, ready for export including tanks of ethanol, the by-product of the processed sugar.

At the end of the tour, President Kabbah had a brief meeting with the community people.
During the meeting, the General Manager of Magbass Sugar Complant, told His Excellency that the company has been very successful in the past three years, but lamented that up till now they have not been able to meet the demands for local consumption. In spite of some initial problems they have been able to work with the people and promised to do all they can to ensure a good working relationship.

Hon. Dr. Fatmata Hassan, member of parliament, who spoke on behalf of the landowners expressed their willingness to give up more land to the Magbass Sugar management for expansion, but appealed for the people to receive economic benefit for their land as they are giving up their farmland to the company. She also appealed for the company to make available their sugar for local consumption.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security Minister, Dr. Sama Monde expressed appreciation to the company for their prompt response to Sierra Leone Government's call for their return after the war and praised the progress of the Magbass Sugar Complant had made in just three years.

President Kabbah thanked the community people for their contribution and cooperation with the Chinese people to make the venture a success. He spoke about the need for peace and good governance. Without peace and good governance, there is no development, he said. He therefore appealed to the people to ensure that the peace they have all worked to have is maintained. He said he was happy to know that the people were happy. People are happy because they have something to do, he said. The Magbass Sugar Company is proving job opportunity for the community people. He also said that there are those in Freetown who keep saying that they are not happy(man den nor gladdy o) simply because these were the same people who have been looting and getting things without working. He said, those days of idleness and brutality were over. Sierra Leone, he said, is now a place where hard work and orderly conduct, have become the order of the day.

The President was very pleased to know that Sierra Leone can now export sugar. He lamented that Sierra Leone is a high consumer country, with very little produce for export, noting that it is only by producing and exporting to other countries that we can earn foreign exchange. The only agricultural produce exported from Sierra Leone is from the East of the country. He said the Tonkolili people should be very proud that they are contributing to the development of the country, but advised the people not to give up all of their farmland as they too have to reserve some land for food production.

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