Elusive Investors keep buying and selling – People remain and suffer
by Joseph Saffa
In January 2009, the President of Sierra Leone launched an ambitious 4 hundred million Euros project in one of the most deprived villages in Sierra Leone. He referred to the project as his baby, a demonstration of his government’s ability to attract economic investors. The project was touted to be the biggest agricultural project ever in the country.
Addax Bioenergy Sierra Leone (ABSL), a Swiss based subsidiary of the Addax and Oryx group (AOG), initiated the Sierra Leone Project in 2008. The company acquired 10.000 ha from landowners in the Makeni region to develop a greenfield integrated agricultural and renewable energy project to produce fuel ethanol to export to EU and electricity to be sold to local market in Sierra Leone. The project was partially financed by the AOG and funded by seven European and African development financial institutions (DFI’s).