Planned division of Sierra Leone’s capital
According to reports, Sierra Leone’s cabinet approved a proposal to reorganise the capital Freetown on Wednesday. According to the proposal, Freetown is to be divided into two independent cities, each with its own municipal administration. In addition, it is planned to divide the western rural region of Freetown into three separate administrative areas. In total, the region would thus consist of five municipal units in future. As the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Tamba Lamina, explained, the high population density in Freetown is the main reason for the planned division. The aim of the measure is to make the municipal administration more efficient and to ensure better municipal services. Legally, the plan is based on the Local Government Act of 2022, which gives the president the power to declare new territorial units. However, criteria such as population density, geographical continuity and future growth are to be taken into account.
In an open letter to Lamina, the mayor of Freetown and winner of the German Africa Award 2024, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, expressed concerns about the lack of consultation with the residents of the affected areas and the possible consequences for urban development. In addition, Freetown, which despite its comparatively small area is home to over 15 percent of the total population, fulfils an important economic and administrative function for Sierra Leone.
The proposed division could further intensify existing challenges in the city’s administration, such as the centralisation of urban planning, road construction and water supply. In addition, the mayor points to ongoing city-wide projects, such as a new waste disposal system, whose successful implementation depends on a unified administrative structure. She also expresses concern about the financing of a second local administrative unit. According to the Local Government Act of 2022, local governments should finance their work from their own revenues, government grants for delegated tasks and services transferred from the state.However, the city administration of Freetown is already heavily reliant on outstanding state funds. Data on tax collection also shows considerable regional differences in revenue collection within the city, which could be further exacerbated by a division and would have a negative impact on the provision of public services.
The background to the debate is the political and social structure of Freetown, which has been the capital of Sierra Leone since independence in 1961 and is historically closely linked to the Krios ethnic group. Critical voices also see the division of the city as a shift in the demographic balance of power, as it could create a city with a numerical superiority of the population of southern origin, which traditionally favours the ruling SLPP party. Since taking office in 2018, critics have also accused President Julius Maada Bio of favouring people from the south of the country with land ownership in Freetown.
In addition to domestic political tensions, Sierra Leone is also facing new foreign policy challenges. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump issued a partial entry ban against Sierra Leone, which is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council until December 2025. This partial entry ban also applies to Burundi and Togo, among others. For nationals of twelve other countries, including the African states of Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, the Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Chad, complete entry bans apply. Nationals of these countries are now only allowed to enter the USA under special exceptions.
Côte d’Ivoire opens agricultural commodities exchange
Last Wednesday, the Bourse des matières premières agricoles (BMPA-CI) was officially opened in Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire. It is the first agricultural commodities exchange in West Africa. The aim of the new marketplace is to create transparent and fair trading conditions in the agricultural sector, promote price stability and strengthen the position of producers along the value chain. Planning began back in 2016, but the opening was postponed several times. The first day of trading finally took place last Friday. Around 89 tonnes of agricultural commodities with a total value of just under €50,000 were traded. At the start of trading, the new exchange listed raw cashew nuts, kola nuts and maize – products that are highly important for the country’s agricultural sector. Gradually, trading is to be expanded to include around 20 agricultural products, including cocoa, Côte d’Ivoire’s most important export. In the medium term, the government anticipates a 20 to 30 percent increase in transactions processed via the exchange.
The BMPA-CI is intended to make the market structure more transparent and replace informal trading processes. In future, producers will be able to deliver their goods to approved warehouses with a total capacity of around 500,000 tonnes near their cultivation areas. In return, they will receive a standardised receipt, which is considered an official security on the stock exchange. This allows them to market their harvest online via brokers, where it is sold either for export or for further processing. According to Raoul-Alex Zouzou, Director of the brokerage firm ACBH, the system enables an objective quality assessment of the products and fair payment for the producers. The exchange also helps to cushion seasonal supply and price fluctuations.
In addition, fixed price limits apply at the BMPA-CI to limit extreme market fluctuations. Price changes within a trading day are limited to 10 to 15 percent for cashew nuts and 25 percent for cola nuts and maize. In addition, there is a government-fixed minimum price of 0.65 euros per kilogramme for cashew nuts. The West African Commodities Market, Raw Material Trading and ACBH are currently registered as authorised brokerage firms. Participants include smallholder farmers, cooperatives and export and investment companies. The financial transactions are processed via the national investment bank of Côte d’Ivoire, the Banque Nationale d’Investissement (BNI).
The UN Economic Commission for Africa praises the BMPA-CI as an important step for the region. Commodity exchanges could contribute to strengthening regional value chains and have a stabilising effect on food security, price stability and export diversification. The BMPA-CI offers a reliable framework for all parties involved through greater transparency and predictability.
However, observers also point to a number of challenges. These include the limited infrastructure, restricted access to funding and a lack of awareness of how the exchange works among those involved. Nicholas Sitko from the Food and Agriculture Organization criticises the fact that smallholder farmers in particular are disadvantaged by requirements such as product standardisation, approved warehouses and administrative requirements. In order to enable broad utilisation of the exchange, it is therefore crucial to specifically involve and train smaller producers in particular.
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of cocoa and a leading exporter of agricultural commodities such as cashew and coffee. Overall, the agricultural sector accounts for around 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and almost 40 percent of exports. With the opening of the BMPA-CI, the country aims to further consolidate and structure its role on the international agricultural market. At the same time, Côte d’Ivoire is joining the group of 15 existing commodity exchanges in Africa – a step that is intended to provide not only national but also regional impetus.
In other news
Last Wednesday, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o passed away in the United States at the age of 87. In his numerous novels, plays and essays, he explored the effects of colonial violence and post-colonial power structures on societies and individuals. In 1964, he published his first novel Weep Not, Child, which was the first English-language novel by an East African author to attract a great deal of international attention. From the 1970s onwards, he decided to write exclusively in his mother tongue, Kikuyu, in order to strengthen cultural self-determination and oppose the linguistic dominance of the colonial power. His play Ngaahika Ndeenda (1977) criticised Kenya’s political elite and led to his arrest without trial. During his one-year imprisonment, he wrote the novel Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ (Devil on the Cross), his first novel in Kikuyu. Even in later years, his relationship with the political leadership in Kenya remained tense. In 1982, he went into exile, first in the United Kingdom and later in the USA. Ngũgĩ’s works have been translated into numerous languages and received worldwide recognition. For decades, he was regarded as a central figure in African literature and was repeatedly named as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Breaking News
Last Thursday, Sidi Ould Tah, former Finance Minister of Mauritania, was elected as the new President of the African Development Bank (AfDB). He will take over the office from his predecessor Akinwumi Adesina on 1 September 2025. His future term of office will focus on the mobilisation of resources, reforms in the financial sector and the expansion of sustainable infrastructure. At international level, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly elected five new non-permanent members to the Security Council on Tuesday. These include the African states of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia. Their mandate begins in January 2026 and runs until the end of 2027, succeeding Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia, whose non-permanent membership ends in December 2025. Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia have already been represented on the Council since January 2024; their term of office runs until the end of 2025.