By Joseph Edegbo :
President Dr Julius Maada Bio departed London Tuesday for a private visit to the Republic of Turkey, where he is expected to spend two weeks and meet potential private sector investors with business interests in Sierra Leone.
The President is being accompanied by his family to Turkey, a country whose bilateral trade volume of $51.5M in 2017 rose to $55.3M in Sierra Leone after the elections of 2018 that ushered in the Sierra Leone People’s Party Government.
In 2019, Turkey exported $59.6M to Sierra Leone, among them were raw iron bars ($15.5M), cement ($14.9M), and wheat flours ($6.9M). In 2019, Sierra Leone also exported $2.67M to Turkey of goods like scrap vessels ($1.21M), titanium ore ($1M), and gold ($421k).
It could be recalled that on 29 July this year His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio participated in the Global Education Summit in London, which raised $4 billion for the Global Partnership for Education as part of a $5 billion funding target to transform education for millions of the world’s most vulnerable children.
This funding is expected to enable 175 million children to learn and help get 88 million more girls and boys in school by 2025.
After the summit, President Bio extended his stay in London till 9 August, during which time he engaged in private meetings with British investors and companies as part of his sustained efforts to promote investment opportunities in the resource-rich West African nation.
