The equipment supports the City Project Implementation Teams (CPITs) in the Various City Councils, effectively carrying out their duties as stated in their terms of reference.
The ceremony was held at the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall on George Street in Freetown.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Financial Secretary, Matthew Dingie, officially presented the equipment, which includes 24 motorbikes, 3 per council, 24 laptops 3 per council, eight multipurpose printers 32 cartridges, eight tablets, 8GPS Devices, 8 Digital Camera, eight mobile modems with 14th Months subscription per council, 16 Phone, eight desktop computers and UPS.
Mi Dingie admonished the beneficiary City Councils to ensure the equipment is used judiciously to address their councils’ multi-sectoral Urban Development challenges and the intended purposes.
He noted that the donation is to capacitate Local Councils to be in a better position to serve their communities. The Financial Secretary said the RUSL project is providing lots of support to the councils to respond to disasters, waste management, and other social problems.
He noted that Local Councils are the critical drivers in protecting the environment, hence the need to capacitate their activities with such logistical support to aid their work.
Matthew Dingie stated that there are other infrastructural developments that the project would bring to their councils.
He encouraged the mayors to work closely with the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs in the implementation.
In his presentation, the Project Coordinator, Anthony Koroma, highlighted the four project components and activities: institutional and capacity development in integrated urban Management, resilient Municipal Infrastructure Investment and Urban Greening, Emergency Management, Capacity Development and Project Management.
Deputy Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs Alfred Moi Jamiru thanked all stakeholders and the World Bank for their continuous support to the councils.
He joined the Ministry of Finance to encourage all the recipient councils to use the equipment prudently. He said they should take advantage of the opportunity because Donors are overstretched due to competing interests for limited available resources.
Mayor and Representatives from the various City Councils (Makeni, Bo, Kenema, Bonthe, Port Loko, Koidu New Sembehun and Western Rural District Councils) thank the Ministry of Finance, the World Bank and the Project Implementing unit for making the handover successful and committing to use the equipment for the intended purpose.
The Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Project is a 56-million-dollar project aimed at improving urban management, service delivery and disaster emergency management in the Western Area and Secondary Cities in Sierra Leone.
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