Former Finance Minister, Dr. Kaifala Marrah launches bid for the opposition APC flag bearer position

By John Gborkor Kamara

Former Chief of Staff, former Bank Governor, and Former Finance Minister Dr. Kaifala Marrah has launched his bid for the flagbearer of the main opposition APC party at a well-attended ceremony at the Freetown city hall.

With his theme, “Vision of New Hope for Sierra Leone with A Decisive Choice of Creating Wealth and Jobs for all Sierra Leoneans,” Dr Marrah, an experienced development expert highlighted his aspirations to lead the party to elections.

He said as a visionary leader with huge experience in local, national, and international areas in public administration, governance, economic management, and policy making, Dr. Marrah said he has what it takes to lead the APC.

“Over 61 years now since independence Sierra Leone has not been able to achieve a common goal on any of our primary developments amidst so many opportunities and natural resources. Even though poverty reduction has been our lead approach to national developments for the longest period, half of our country's population live below the poverty line,” He stressed.

He also elaborated on his “Green economy drive which focuses on natural resources, food productions, diversification, mechanized large scale agriculture including livestock, clean energy, forestry, and processing.

“Looking at all the boli lands and numerous land valley swamps with more than 150,000 hectares located in many parts of the country fit for commercial purposes, we have not been able to provide food for our growing population nor to meet the food self-sufficient target come 2030,” he said.

He noted that 58% of our population do not have access to basic water service, 23% have access to electricity as compared to 30% in the Sub Sahara countries. The vision also highlighted that the life expectancy in Sierra Leone is below 60 years and that the annual outpatient malaria cases are around 2 million per year and that Sierra has topped the UNICEF highest infant mortality rate in 2020, a situation he described as shameful.

Dr. Kaifalla Marrah holds a bachelor’s degree in English and International Relations from Fourah Bay college (FBC), a master’s degree in Public Funds from the University of New York, and a Doctorate degree in Political Finance from the University of Haul in England.

He brings more than 20 years’ experience in International advisory and public leadership roles, serving at the New York state senate Legislative Aide/ Budget Analyst, Adviser on Public expenditure managements at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. He provided Global leadership among others as: Chair of the G7+, an organization of 20 fragile and conflict affected states led by finance ministers. Co-Chair of the International Dialogue on peace Building; and World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development.

For more about Dr. Marrah’s manifesto for the opposition APC, visit TVS for the live video coverage.