The World Bank recently announced that it would invest $4m (£2.8m) into Sierra Leone’s fishing industry, a sector that provides employment for about 230,000 people.

Every year the government of Sierra Leone loses over one hundred million dollars in revenue from the country’s vastly rich fishing sector, because of poor governance, weak surveillance and monitoring systems, poor procurement arrangements and corruption.

Foreign fishing companies are depriving the country of an estimated £100 million in fees and duties, by exploiting the country’s vast territorial waters as well as the high level corruption taking place on the corridors of the fisheries ministry.

Local Sierra Leonean owned fishing companies do not have the capacity and finance to compete with their foreign counterparts, nor do they have the support of the government to grow and strengthen their business.

Read elsewhere:

• Gambia experience with Steven George-Hilley aid work
• Sierra Leone Street Child Project