By Sulaiman Jalloh
Sierra Lorne’s Minister of Communication, Innovation and Technology, Madam Salima Monorma Bah has said the government of President Julius Maada Bio has invested about one hundred and thirty-two million dollars (US$132M) in the digital sector to improving the country’s digital transformation, noting President Bio is determined to transform the country’s digital space, emphasizing that other countries have gone ahead, something she said government is willing to deliver for its citizenry.
According to Minister Bah, the government has signed an MOU with neighbouring Guinea to create alternative fiber routes for both countries to ensure low redundancy in connectivity.
Speaking on Tuesday January 21, 2025, at the weekly government press briefing in Freetown, Bah outlined the government’s strides to leveraging digital transformation for sustainable development while highlighting some key initiates such as the National Digital Development Policy, the National Innovation and Digital Strategy, the National Cyber security coordinating center among others.
Minister Bah emphasized the importance of institutional development and that the establishment of the Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation (DSTI), the universal access development fund drive is aimed to strengthen digital transformation in the country.
On sectoral progress, she noted that significant progress has been made including the expansion of the fiber backbone from eight districts in 2019 to fourteen districts in 2024, adding this addition reflect about seventy-five percent (75%) increment, stressing that mobile network modernization has seen coverage improvement across all levels with 2G increased from 80% to 96%, 3G from 60% to 96%, 4G from 35% to 87% thus reflecting the access to internet connectivity. Bah added that Mobile subscribers have increased in recent times with over 80% and that the internet traffic has grown from fourteen thousand to over one hundred thousand.
She furthered that wholesale bandwidth prices have dropped from $40 per Mega Bite (MB) in 2019 to $10 in 2024.
When asked about the country’s tele-communication, the Minister said the government is working to privatize Sierratel and that internal audit is ongoing to know the company’s assets and liabilities.
