Sierra Mineral Holdings 1 Limited (SMHL) in collaboration with Community Development Committee (CDC) is well known for her complementing role to the Government of Sierra Leone in promoting education. Over the years, scholarship award to indigenes of the affected Bauxite mining operational Chiefdoms (Dasse, Lower Banta and Upper Banta Chiefdoms in the Moyamba District, Bumpe Ngao in the Bo District and Kpanda Kemoh in the Bonthe District) had been an annual event.

This year’s payment was at the cost of: Three Million One Hundred and Fifteen thousand (Nle 3,115,000) Leones to 723 Students across tertiary institutions in Sierra Leone. The aim is to improve the skills and cognitive level of indigenes from the SMHL primary host communities as a way to make them competitive for jobs advertised especially from the Company.

The Human Resource Director – Sierra Minerals in her speech, mentioned that the Company is fully aware of the rationale for Community Development funds which is to bring back sustainable development projects to the host communities. She thanked the Government of Sierra Leone for the sound policies already in place to improve the Human capacity and mining policies. She referred to the CDC structure as a baby to the Company and therefore commit to prioritize their interest to enhance development and peaceful coexistence for a Win Win situation.

The Minister of Higher Education and Technical Education, Doctor Ramatulai Wurie who served as the Keynote speaker, motivated the beneficiaries to strike for excellence performance. She commended the Company and Community Development Committee for putting premium on the female students in high proportion of the selected beneficiaries. She further advocated for consideration of the middle man power in skill training.

The Resident Minister South, Chief John Abu, commended Sierra minerals CDC as the best in terms of implementation records. He admonished the beneficiaries to utilize the amounts to support the education, appealing to the Sierra Mineral CDC to increase on amounts to cover at least 90% of the beneficiaries Tuition fees.The program was climaxed by the distribution of Cheques to the beneficiaries.