EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Coronavirus disease struck the world in the third quarter of 2019. Since then, there is a global
assumption that the pandemic has, in one way or the other, impacted all sectors of governance.
However, to what extent some sectors are impacted, still remains unclear for many countries. Many
efforts have been employed by researchers to find out.
In similar regard, Ford Foundation, funded ISODEC in Ghana, to coordinate a regional COVID-19impact
assessment study in the five Anglophone West African countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, The Gambia
and Sierra Leone; to assess, to what extent the outbreak impacted particularly the extractive sector,
but also looking at generally how the social and economic situations of these countries were affected
by the same virus. NMJD is leading the assessment in Sierra Leone.
The scope of the study attempts to find out what has been the impact of the outbreak on the natural
resource sector in terms of its direct and indirect impact on the macro-economy, labour market,
governance, illicit financial flows in the mining sector, strategic policy implementation on the
extractive sector, the impact on mining communities, the business environment as a whole, external
development financing, potential impact on public financing in the near future, and an assessment of
mitigation measures.
In Sierra Leone, the assessment targeted relevant ministries, departments and agencies at national
level, and in five active mining districts of the regions (Kono, Tonkolili, Moyamba, Bonthe and
Kenema), also targeting decentralized government MDAs, local authorities, large-and small-scale
miners, other business activities in the natural resource sector – including timber logging, sand mining,
quarrying and petroleum gas trade.
This assessment was commissioned at a time the Government had imposed a partial lockdown of the
Western Area, which restricted movement from outside Freetown to the provinces. This caused delays
with planning and conducting interviews. However, the lockdown was short-lived. The ban on travel
outside Freetown was soon lifted after two weeks which enabled enumerators to go round the
country on data collection.
Overall, the findings have affirmed that public governance, private lives of people and the commercial
sector were all directly or indirectly impacted by the pandemic. Most of these impacts are negative –
including a drastic decline in public revenue, break in the supply chain of mining products, drop in
market value of some mineral resources, rush for the extraction of some resources such as gold and
timber due to hike in market prices, but that also brought along a serious environmental impact. There
has been loss of jobs, especially in the mining, entertainment and tourism sectors. The public health
sector has been badly exposed to public mistrust, thus giving rise to many Sierra Leoneans not
preferring to go to public health facilities when sick.
Authorities in some mining communities reported acute increase in unemployment for the past year
- 2020. There are also cases of delayed payment of subnational benefits such as surface rents and
community development funds. This is exactly within the COVID-19 period, and representatives of
mining companies interviewed blamed it on the difficult economic situation created by the COVID-19
pandemic. They however, indicated in their statements that those delays would only be temporal and
that all legal payments would be made once situations get better.
Findings did not show any possible increase in illicit financial flow in the mining sector during this
period. In fact, the ban on travel prevented the presence of many illegal investors, some of whom the
community people do refer to as gem mafias. This directly affected the direct sale of precious minerals
like diamonds and Gold in the black market. However, the increased, indiscriminate cutting down of
timber for export, for which the government has demonstrated high financial interest by enforcing an
export monopoly on, could be seen as a clear case of illicit business in the extractive sector that
exacerbated during the pandemic. Similar cases are reported in the fishing sector where government
and land owners are in conflict over a parcel of coastal land along the Freetown peninsula for the
establishment of what the government calls a fishing harbor. The government has already received 55
million USD from the Chinese government in respect of that project. It is not clear what the money
will be used for.
As a direct impact on the mining sector, the 2020 update from the mining sector of Sierra Leone
indicates a surge in small-scale gold and mineral sand mining, while a significant increase in large-scale
industrial mining. A continuous increase in the export of rutile is observed from 100 million USD in
2018, to 143.48 million and a sharp reduction to 119.79 million USD in 2020. There has been a gradual
decline in the export of all other minerals from 2018 to 2020.
‘It is anticipated that mineral export from Wongor Investment & Mining Corporation Limited (gold),
Cheng Li Trading & Mining Company Limited (gold), Supreme Minerals Corporation (SL) Ltd (bauxite)
and Kingho Mining Company Ltd (iron ore) will contribute significantly to the total mineral export
values in 2021.’ (Mineral sector, 2020)