By Alusine Fullah

The Government of Sierra Leone under the leadership of President Bio has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Chinese Company, China Road and Bridge Corporation and the architectural firm of the Atepa Group for the construction of Freetown-Lungi Bridge. This construction which President Julius Maada Bio refereed few years ago to as a transformative infrastructural project, is taken centre stage in the next few months.

This development came after a public notice that was last Friday, 1 December, 2023 released by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education. According to the notice, this release is estimated to cost about $1.5 billion. The public notice states: “The Freetown-Lungi Bridge will be 8km long with an estimated investment cost of about $1.5 billion. This project is part of president Bio’s Big 5 game changer vision to improve Sierra Leone’s Technology and Infrastructure; aimed at linking the Freetown with the important Lungi airport hub and ease the transport flow of international and local travellers…”

The notice ended by noting that a feasibility study will be completed in the next few months, and barring unforeseen delays, construction will commence in the last quarter of 2024. This project is estimated to about three years to complete from the start to date.

The Lungi Bridge project was one of the campaign promises made by president Bio during his 2018 presidential election campaign. However, five years later, the plan was not fulfilled. Opposition leaders and other critics have criticised the president over failure to fulfil his promise. In January, 2022, President Bio stressed on struggles to finance the project during a meeting with the UN Economic Commission for African (ECA). He said: “Currently, a mix of ferry and private boats move people and goods across. The economic and other benefits of a bridge that joins the two landmasses are immense. But there is a struggle mobilizing exclusively private capital to finance such a large venture. However, based on the public notice that was released by the Government of Sierra Leone, it seems that one of the most criticised projects (Lungi Bridge construction) for President Bio is coming into reality.