David Omashola Carew

Minister of Trade and Industry; Former Minister of Finance & Development

Education:  Sierra Leone  Grammar School; BSc Economics, University of Sierra Leone, 1976-79.

Career: Graduate Accountant, 1979-82: Chartered Accountant, 1982-86, KPMG- Nigeria; Various promotions from Assistant Manager to Senior Manager, KPMG-Sierra Leone, 1986-88; Partner, KMPG-Sierra Leone, 1989-2007; Partner, KMPG-Gambia, 1991-2007; Minister of Finance and Development, 2007-09: Minister of Trade and Industry, 2009-date: Government of Sierra Leone.

Commentary: David Carew is one of the cabinet’s “Three Musketeers” as he alongside Foreign Minister Zainab Bangura and Defence Minister Palo Conteh like to call themselves. In May 2010 the Ministry of Trade and Industry issued a press release hitting back at comments made in an article written by a local reporter suggesting that Zainab Bangura’s son Ibrahim Bangura was hired as Deputy Commissioner General of a Shangai Expo arranged for later in the year, and paid by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The Ministry and Ibrahim Bangura said that these claims were false and Bangura was not paid for his services.

After initially heading the Ministry of Finance, President Ernest Bai Koroma’s reshuffle in February 2009, saw him become the new minister of trade and industry. The former central bank governor, Samura Kamara, replaced him.