NIB Concludes Nationwide PPP, PPCP Capacity-Building Workshop at Freetown City Council
By: Sorie Sesay
The National Investment Board (NIB), through the Office of the Vice President and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Directorate, has on 26 November 2025 concluded its nationwide capacity-building workshop series on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and Public-Private Community Partnership (PPCP) at the Freetown City Council (FCC).
Giving the opening remarks, the Deputy Mayor of Freetown, Kweku Melvin Lisk Esq., said the initiative is very important. He explained that one of the main challenges local councils face is finding ways to attract private funding into the local government space. He added that when he learned that the initiative came from the Office of the Vice President, he knew it was a serious effort to address these issues.
According to the Deputy Mayor Lisk Esq said without private funding, councils cannot effectively carry out their day-to-day activities because they face many challenges. He highlighted that creating a platform to attract private-sector investment is crucial for the City Council, and he expressed support for the initiative while looking forward to its results.
He also noted that many challenges faced by local councils in Sierra Leone such as unclear procedures and procurement-related constraints are also common in other countries, including the United States. He emphasized that councils must make better use of the assets they already have to overcome these difficulties.
Speaking during the workshop, Tom Bongay, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the National Investment Board, said the PPP capacity-building workshop aims to help councils across the country learn how to collaborate with the private sector to deliver better services and infrastructure.
He added that the workshop is important because councils face many difficulties in providing essential services and infrastructure. Public-Private Partnerships, he said, offer a valuable opportunity for councils to attract private-sector support and resources to help them meet their development responsibilities.
Bongay further explained that the team’s main purpose was to help councils develop concept papers that can later be transformed into full proposals and presented to private-sector investors who may be interested in funding the projects.
