By Francis F.M. Harding
The National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) has re-commenced work on the Sewa Grounds Market in Freetown.
Speaking during the officially handing over of the project to seven, contractors on Monday 29 August 2022, the Investment and Project Division Officer of NASSIT, Tejan Kellah, said the project was out to build traders a market in Freetown, especially for those at Sani Abacha and Rawdon Streets.
“NASSIT is charged with the responsibility of administering Sierra Leone’s National Pension Scheme, but we also use the surplus for investments and that this market is an investment. We are here because government’s goodwill,” he said.
Kellah said that the Director General of NASSIT had mounted serious pressure on them to complete the project as quickly as possible, reiterating that the work had seven contractors to complete the project within the shortest possible time.
The consultant, Abel Onomake, said the duration for the completion of the contract is 120 days, starting from Monday 29 August 2022.
The lead project manager said that the Sewa Grounds Market would accommodate about three thousand traders. There would be four different types of stores that would comprise about one thousand five hundred and forty-four different stores, he said.
Engineer Abel Onomake noted that they had divided the facility into seven different lots so that “the contractors will be able to work efficiently” and deliver the finished work on time.
“We are now in the open market stall; the largest of all the buildings here. It’s about 50% of the entire market,” he said as he itemised the facilities. “We have four different categories of stalls depending on the kind of merchandise, spaces for tables and the total occupancy of this building is one thousand fife hundred and forty-four, and we are expecting about three thousand traders including their assistants,” he said.
Mr Abel disclosed that they have moved the toilets out of the building to a lot two for obvious reasons etc. “We have forty different toilet compartments; twenty for women and twenty for men,” he added. The lead engineer furthered that the lot three is the warehouse block for traders to store their goods.
He said that there is no specific building in the fourth lot and it will contain water supply, transformer, standby generator, parking space, etc. The Lot five provides spaces for small police post to provide security for traders with fire hydrant to mitigate the likelihood of fire. There will be a Crèche where nursing mother who sell in the market can put their children.
The lead contractor noted that the facility has six duplex shops to accommodate outlets and advanced shops. The facility has one hundred and seventy other shops and it provides for about one hundred and eighty two different rentable and multiple spaces.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Edward Hinga Sandi thanked NASSIT for their timely intervention, saying that he had looked at all the engineering processes and that it would be good for traders.
“Traders within the Central Business District of Freetown have suffered for so long”, starting that after the completion of the building, traders would have a dignified marketplace to fine their livelihood,” Dr Sandi said.
The Trade and Industry said that market people don’t want to be at the street to sell, observing that traders need to be doing their businesses in safe and secured places as rains and suns are disturbing their activities.
He continued that to access toilet and to use the ladies is another big challenge that market women are encountering in the jungle of street trading, adding that NASSIT has taken a step in the right direction to address the plight of women.
The Minister of Transport and Aviation, Kabineh Kallon, informed the gathering that before the start of the project, his ministry and NASSIT had been engaging behind the scene just to see this project get to the stage of completion.
He maintained that as a ministry, they had also started implementing a World Bank project of constructing market structures, over-head bridges for pedestrians and street traders across Freetown.
For his part, the Director General of NASSIT, Dr Mohamed Fuad Daboh, explained the delay for the completion of the Sewa Grounds Market, spanning back to 2028.
Dr Daboh disclosed that since 2018 the contract had been under serious investigations by the Anti-Corruption Commission and other public institutions to know how the contract was awarded and why the project was not completed before the timeframe given.
“So this caused the delay but however, for the past two years now, we have been working with the management and board of NASSIT to see how we can complete this project. It has been back and forth, we have to go through the procurement process and I think that went well. So we are here today to officially handover this building to the contractors,” he explained.
Dr Daboh further explained: “With efforts made we have been able to reach to the stage of awarding the contract to seven contractors that would ensure the building is completed for the stipulated time given to them.”
He said that the money for the project is investment money hence after the completion of the market, traders are expected to pay for the facilities before they can have access to it.
He said that the ACC and Audit Service Sierra Leone are bringing different people from abroad who are called forensic auditors and NASSIT has also hired other investigators for the alleged corruption issues surrounding the building.
