The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr. Kaifala Marah signed a US$12 million loan agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) on Thursday January 28 for the rehabilitation and expansion of Fourah Bay College (FBC). This fund is part of a consortium to the value of US$36.7 million to rehabilitate existing administrative buildings and student hostels, and build new structures to meet the growing demand of students for lecture rooms and lodging. Eng. Hassan Mohammed Al-Attas, Director General of Operations Department of SFD signed on behalf of the Saudis.
“The amount of the loan to be provided under this signed agreement is 45 million Saudi Riyals which is equivalent to about $12 million US Dollars. This brings the total amount of SFD loans for financing development projects in Sierra Leone to 124.5 million Saudi Riyals or 33.5 million US Dollars for financing 5 development projects,” Hassan Mohammed Al-Attas said. The Saudi Fund intends to give Sierra Leone a grant of $5 million for the drilling of wells in rural communities, he said.
Other members of the funding consortium are BADEA, OFID and the Government of Sierra Leone. BADEA is providing US$8 million, OFID is providing $13 million and the Government of Sierra Leone is committing US$3.65 million making a total of US$36.7 million towards the project, said Dr. Kaifala Marah who signed the OFID agreement on April 18, 2013 and the BADEA agreement on May 19, 2013.
People refer to the Fourah Bay College Project as the BADEA project because BADEA was the first institution that the University, Education and Finance ministry officials approached to fund the project. “Fourah Bay College was founded on the 18th of February, 1827. In 1872 it became a degree granting institution with an affiliation to the University of Durham,” Dr. Marah said. FBC is one of the three constituent colleges of the University of Sierra Leone.
“This has been a very long journey,” Dr. Minkailu Bah Minister of Education Science and Technology said during the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall. The project started in 2006 when the proposal was sent to the Finance Ministry. The architectural drawings have been done and consultants have been working on other issues, Dr. Bah said.
The beneficiary of the project FBC serves 6,000 students and employs close to 2,000 academic and support staff.
Monday February 01, 2016