By Ralph Sesay
The Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Rado Swaray, has been recently awarded by the Nigeria Business Awards SL 2018 as the ‘Best Minister’ for 2018 in President Bio’s seven months old administration.
Receiving the award, on behalf of her husband at the prestigious Bintumani Hotel in Freetown, Madam Rebecca Monica Swaray thanked President Bio for according her husband the opportunity to serve the government and people of Sierra Leone. She also thanked the organizers of the event for awarding her husband among many other ministers. She noted that the award will serve as a motivation to the minister to continue to push on with the agenda of the New Direction.
Minister Rado Swarray was awarded alongside other awardees, including government, private and other private sector players, who have contributed immensely in their various fields of end eavour.
The Minister of Information and Communication is noted to have provided strong leadership within the past seven months in repositioning key agencies under his Ministry to be able to deliver on the President Bio’s mandate.
Key among these agencies have been the National Telecommunications Commissions (NATCOM), the Sierra Leone Cable Network Limited, Right To Access Information Commission (RFAIC) and the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC)
The Communications Minister and his vibrant team of professionals, in these agencies, have been able to mainstream ICT as an engine to drive the overall aspirations of the country.
SALCAB has been able, under his leadership, to push for rebranding and increase use of technology in driving education, governance and business activities in the country, while also reducing the cost of bandwidth to mobile network operators with the view to be able to impact a good number of internet users across the country.
Government programs and activities have been effectively relayed and cascaded to the people of Sierra Leone under the New Direction, thereby creating an open, transparent and highly accountable governance system.
The minister has been able to singlehandedly conduct an assessment of the problems confronting the effective operations of these agencies and, in the few overseas trips he has attended, he has lobbied for support and cooperation with bi-lateral countries and private sector players leading to the signing of MOU towards enhancing the effectiveness of these institutions for better service delivery to the people of Sierra Leone.