The landing of the fibre optic cable has been the biggest flagship project of the Ministry of Information and Communications. With funding and technical support from the World Bank, the project started off expeditiously in 2011 resulting in the landing of the cable in record time.
This essentially connects Sierra Leone to the rest of Africa and Europe through a Submarine cable. Once the cable arrived at the landing station in Lumley in October 2011, the technical bottlenecks of connecting to the backbone, to roll out to the rest of the country became real challenges. Then, the administrative/legal complications of divestiture of the shares in a public private partnership framework also created serious delays.
One year on, the Government of Sierra Leone and 13 private companies on the 5th October 2012, in the full view of the World Bank Country Manager, signed the Memorandum of Understanding.
The Minister of Information and Communication- Mr. Ibrahim Ben Kargbo- admitted that there have several challenges along the way and added that the project would not have been successful without the support and interest of the World Bank.
The signing ceremony is only an indication of commitment by the potential investors to partner with the government who still owns 100% of the shares. The divestiture takes effect only when the investors meet their financial obligations starting with an administrative fee of US$ 25,000 due Friday 12, October, 2012.
The other financial obligations regarding payment for shares already allocated to the various partners are expected to be met in the next six weeks or the shares may be sold to other interested parties.
Once these obligations are met the shareholders would now appoint their representatives to the Board of SALCAB but this also depends on the quantum of shares a partner owns. The Minister indicates that holders of 10% or more shares would be eligible.
The Government will be selling, initially, a total of about 47.5 % shares and depending on the “performance of the shareholders”, more shares will be divested. This means that the government which still owns the biggest shares of more than 42% would appoint the Chairman to the Board.
On the benefits of the project to education, governance, medical services, communication, the World Bank Country Manager, Mr. Francis Ato-Brown emphasized that pricing is crucial in ensuring that the ordinary people benefit from the project. Ato-Brown said that the World Bank is pleased to have been part of the process at this stage. Although the venture will be liberalized, with Executive and Parliamentary approval of the Fibre Optic Project, the Minister said the partnership would, in fact be a Public Private People Partnership. The emphasis is on the people to derive the maximum benefit from the project which, according to the Minister, is the thrust of the government’s Agenda for Change. The Partnership with the private sector is to ensure that, using their infrastructure and roll out capacity, the chiefdoms, towns and villages are hooked on. Nine (9) out of the thirteen (13) telecommunications companies and internet service providers present signed the MOU.
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