“I am impressed about the work of the APP that they have invested a huge amount of money for a new business on the facility and they will be providing an end to end solution while providing jobs for youths in the community.”

These were the words of Chief Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa on Wednesday 19 January 2022 while inspecting the storage facility of the All Petroleum Products (APP) at the Oil Refinery at Kissy in Freetown.

The Chief Minister emphasized that for people to recapitalize old businesses and come up with new ones and new ideas is an indication of that there is good governance arrangements; that the policy is right; that the legal framework is right, and that regulatory framework is right and that the political leadership is right. “We are pleased to be implementing a liberalized policy,” the Chief Minister said.

He maintained that: “We came to see how they are operating so that we have a clear knowledge for future decision-making and to see how the policies we’ve taken is yielding fruits.”

He also disclosed that there is total trust among the other players that want to enter the market and that is what they want because the more the merrier. “We are practically liberalizing the petroleum market and the more players mean more revenue”. He said the challenges in the petroleum industry will be lessened and that there will be fuel stability.

The Managing Director, Patrick O’Dwyer expressed their appreciation to the government for their support in collaboratively salvaging the negative effect of oil unavailability in Sierra Leone.

He said that he is grateful to the government, and that, the Chief Minister, Minister of Lands, Minister of Internal Affairs, Petroleum Regulatory Agency and others. He said that they are very grateful to them to come and see their work.

The MD reiterated that it is appreciative of the Chief Minister to come and see their investment. “I am glad that they come and that they will dispel all the rumors that the APP will not be able to go live this year”.

According Mr.  O’Dwyer, now they’ve seen that they are literally days and counting, “the Chief Minister is able to witness us preparing to install fiber optic cables all over our facility and tanks that will enable us to control our instrumentation, enable us to monitor our facilities, allow us to show numbers in terms of product levels and sales. The whole nine yards will be digitalized.

“When are completed, many jobs will be created for Sierra Leoneans. We will be having the largest storage capacity and our operations will be highly automated” said the MD.