By: Ishmael Bangura
MD: Ahmed Saybom Kanu
The Sierra Leone National Shipping Company (SLNSC) has on Friday 4th June 2020 held a press briefing at their Cline town head office in Freetown.
Speaking to journalist Mustapha Marksall, Deputy Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Shipping company (SLNSC) has said to journalists that the company has repositioned itself to service nation.
He said the business of Clearing and Forwarding involves various stakeholders including Bollorie, NECTAR among others the reason he stated is always necessary to work as a team.
The Deputy MD paid tribute to his boss, the Managing Director whom he said came to the company with an open mind and was able to lobby stakeholders particularly the Ministry of Finance for the passing by Parliament the 2019 Finance which authorizes all Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) to clear their good under the Shipping Company.
He said such a move could not have come at a better time when most of these MDAs were hiring private institutions to clear their goods.
He said just recently the company cleared Fiber Optic Network Cables for the Phase II work to commence after government had secured a $31m concessional loan from the Exim Bank.
Also Mr. Maeklissa said the company cleared from the port 30kg rice donated to the Foreign Ministry to by the Japanese government. All these were done with precision ,the reason I will continue to commend the MD, Ahmed Saybom KANU for his lobbying skills.
‘The COVID-19 has had its toll on our operations, lights are no longer conning which were our main source of revenue and that has negatively impacted on our operations’. The Deputy MD stated.
He said though Ships still arrive but that in itself has not filled the gap which means management has to make do with what they are getting.
In September 2018 President Bio appointed Mr. KANU as Managing director to held a once moribund institution with little or nothing to show but his arrival has injected new blood into the company to the point if it becoming the envy of others.
To achieve this Mr. Maeklissa said some heads had to roll and it was good for the institution.
The company undertakes activities like Clearing and Forwarding, Warehousing, Haulage, Packing and /Crating, Ship’s Agency (Lunar&tramp)
Insurance and indemnity, Representation and Bunker Facilities.
Mr. Maeklissa continued that the good thing is they are versatile as they handle everything pertaining to Ships and the cooperation of the private Sector has been immense
He described the year 2018 as that of reforms when he stated that several changes were made to expand the company’s activities the reason they were able to serve as Forwarding Agents consulted by Future Bud International to for the 90334 30kg aid rice for the Ministry of Finance. He said they also clear for the Ministry of Agriculture, rice meant for the School feeding programme.
The Covenant Newspaper
