Following his reinstatement, the no-nonsense and hard-working Maritime Boss, Paul Sobba Massaquoi, went straight to work by attending the International Maritime Organization General Assembly.

where he laid before the IMO Secretary-General the Sierra Leone Maritime STCW statutory instrument that he ratified and domesticated through parliament as his first project when he was first appointed ED in 2020.

An STCW Whitelisted country means any third country that, according to the European Commission, ensures an adequate level of protection by reason of its domestic law or of the international commitments it has entered into..

As for Sierra Leone, becoming a white listed country means a lot in terms of increase in our country’s blue economy.

Paul’s mission and vision is to see this happen whilst he’s still at Maritime as ED.

His visit has now brought Maritime back to the lime light at the IMO- International Maritime Oganisation and one that has prompted the IMO to visit Sierra Leone in April to inspect the entire Maritime in terms of its readiness and capacity to be a white listed countries.

Some of the things the IMO will be looking at are the Maritime lighthouse, which is considered one of the IMO  navigational tools, inspection of the country’s aids to navigation as well as some of the internal systems in place to monitor activities at sea.

The more reason Paul will be engaging with all stakeholders, including the supervising ministry, the board, and parliament, to seek their support if Sierra Leone is to achieve its Maritime white list status. A dream that every serious minded leader would like to achieve.

Those who were in attendance for Sierra Leone are the Newly Appointed Permanent Representative to the IMO Ambassador Dr Morie Manyeh UK.

Engineer Ibrahim Wurie.. Director of Safety and Security

Mr Shiek Kabba – Alternate Rep. IMO