Sierra Leone Telegraph: 31 October 2026: Visa and Senegal’s Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Affairs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a two-year framework for strategic collaboration to support Senegal’s digital transformation ambitions. This partnership will foster cooperation on digital payments, financial innovation, cybersecurity and regulatory matters, while enabling the exploration of high-impact use cases that could help modernise public services and expand access to digital financial services. This MoU is the first of such partnership signed between Visa and a government institution in Senegal. It is built on structured public-private dialogue and the sharing of expertise to identify collaboration opportunities aligned with national priorities. Visa and Senegal’s Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Affairs will explore, among other areas, payments from individuals to government (P2G, Person-to-Government) and payments from government to individuals (G2P, Government-to-Person). This work will seek to identify how digital solutions could facilitate interactions between citizens...

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 31 October 2026: African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has released its Gabon Country Brief, offering a comprehensive analysis of the Central African nation’s macroeconomic outlook, trade performance, financial sector development and debt sustainability profile. The brief highlights Gabon as one of Africa’s wealthier economies, with real GDP per capita, estimated at about USD8,641 in 2026. Home to 2.7 million people, Gabon is strategically located on the Atlantic Coast of Central Africa, with direct access to global shipping routes through the ports of Owendo and Port-Gentil. The nation commands a distinctive profile as a commodity-rich economy with expanding industrial ambitions. Real GDP growth is forecast to accelerate to 3.3% in 2026, supported by stronger hydrocarbons receipts, while inflation is expected to hold at a contained 2.3%, comfortably within the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) regional threshold. The findings of the brief demonstrate how Gabon’s economic story...

Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Justice Ganawah: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 31 October 2026: Sierra Leone’s 2026 WASSCE results tell two stories at once. On the surface, more candidates passed than last year. Underneath, one in four candidates who sat the examination has a result withheld for suspected malpractice, and fewer than one in ten earned a credit in English Language. A system that produces more passes and less learning should trouble every one of us. On Tuesday, 27 October, the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Mr Conrad Sackey, announced the results. In homes from Kroo Bay to Kailahun, phones lit up with the WAEC checker. For 47,454 families, the screen showed a single word: withheld. I write as someone who has stood on both sides of this examination. I sat it at St Edward’s. I taught it there while still a student at Fourah Bay College, and for many years...