232NEWS, FREETOWN
His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has received a delegation from the African Peer Review Mechanism, APRM, which is in the country to engage government and update the President on all its calendar activities and the statutory meeting scheduled for Wednesday 7 February 2024 in Freetown.
The team comprised the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of APRM, Professor Eddy Maloka, Chairperson of the APRM Panel of Eminent Persons, Dr Abdoulie Janneh and other senior members of the APRM Continental Secretariat, a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by African Union member states as an African self-monitoring mechanism.
Minister of Political and Public Affairs, Amara Kallon, who presented the team also updated the President on the planned meeting, adding that Sierra Leone had served as chair of the APRM Forum of Heads of State and Government for 2 years and that the country would be handing over the leadership in February 2024.
He revealed that, during their courtesy call, the APRM team will brief the President on the achievements made under his leadership and will also brief him on the different meetings that will be held in Sierra Leone before the end of his tenure as chairperson.
Minister Kallon disclosed that highlights of the February 7th meeting would be fed into the final report of the APRM, which would be presented to the AU Summit in Addis Ababa on 17-18 February 2024.
President Julius Maada Bio, while welcoming the team to Freetown also acknowledged the fact that members of the APRM Continental Secretariat were no strangers to Sierra Leone.
He said that as President and as the present chairperson of the APRM Forum of Heads of State and Government, he was looking forward to having a good meeting and deliberations on Monday.
He called the body to ensure that there was a smooth transition of power, stressing that APRM was a great organisation that would continue to stand the test of time.
The continental instrument has four key focal areas of intervention, including democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance, and socio-economic development.
