Jump to navigation

Vol 65 No 17

Published 23rd August 2024


Nigeria

Freetown’s business school buys $4.5m hole in the bush

Sierra Leone University lost US$4.5m of public money to a Nigerian company after red flags were ignored and safeguards overridden. Then, they kept it secret

An Africa Confidential Special Report By Josef Skrdlik and Andrew Weir  

Read this Special Report for free here: Freetown’s business school buys $4.5m hole in the bush 

Plus the accompanying report: Femab Properties’ chequered past in which we probe the often questionable history of Sierra Leone's Nigerian partners and ask why multiple warning signs were ignored

 

The Bureh Town campus site after five years after work stopped.

The Bureh Town campus site after five years after work stopped. Pic: Josef Skrdlik



Related Articles

Escalating violence could reshape Tinubu’s plan for 2027 vote

Northern states have been hit hardest by jihadist insurgents together with banditry and kidnapping alongside murderous herder-farmer clashes

When Nigeria’s National Security Advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, announced the arrest of two senior fighters affiliated with Al Qaida on 17 August, officials cited it as another success for...


Militants turn the screw

Secessionists and Delta rebels are gaining support as Abuja and the oil giants fail to answer for lingering effects of the oil curse

The first warning came on 2 February last year. Niger Delta pirates in two speedboats boarded a Bulgarian tanker 160 kilometres off the Bakassi Peninsula, on Nigeria's south-eastern...


Slow turnaround

Slow progress on the economy and against corruption is rubbing the sheen off last year's free elections

On election, President Ernest Bai Koroma gave himself three years to turn Sierra Leone around, but the first year has been unimpressive, and the smart performance of President...


A family business

Oppositionists lambast Ernest Bai Koroma's government for favouring the north-west region in its appointments, specifically the President's own Limba people and their Temne and Krio allies.


Contenders fill the stage

As economic and security woes mount, electoral calculations will shape policy and business strategy

With presidential and national assembly elections due in February 2023, political campaigns will go into overdrive this year as alliances are made and deals struck. Outgoing President Muhammadu...

READ FOR FREE