The Director General of Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority (SLCAA), Mrs. Musayeroh Barrie is passionate about the aviation industry in Sierra Leone and Africa. At the SAATM Pilot Implementation Project in Sierra Leone, she spoke with Aviation & Allied Business Journal on the implementation of SAATM in Sierra Leone amongst other topics.
Q: What motivated Sierra Leone to host the SAATM PIP Airshow?
A: I think any African state that knows the advantages that come with SAATM would be honoured to host such event. For me, it’s been eight months since I took office as Director General, and I have always had in my mind that Sierra Leone has all the potential to connect Africa and connect the world. I was actually honoured to meet with the Secretary General of AFCAC in January on an orientation visit, and we discussed the PIP at length.
And I was just concerned that Sierra Leone wasn’t part of the initial 20 countries. I discussed with the SG how Sierra Leone can also play a role and the options. And here we are 8-9 months later, happy to host an event like this in Sierra Leone. This is the first time our country would host this kind of event, and it has really been a big learning curve for our citizens and this will go a long way in helping establish the aviation culture that we want to cultivate in Sierra Leone.
Q: Your safety score moved from 18% to 72%, and everybody says it’s phenomenal. How did you go about it and what has been the magic?
A: Really, there is no magic. It has been a lot of hard work and a very long process. The initial score of 18% was achieved in 2008, a time when the CAA wasn’t really established as an autonomous institution by law. So, it was almost as if it was at the starting of our real aviation journey. And the CMA audit was done in 2023. How many years in between? That jump from 18% to 23% to 72% happened over that span.
And during that span, we have had three Director Generals of civil aviation: Mr. Tarawally, Mr. Abu bakarr Kamara, and Mr. Moses Tiffa Baio, who was the sitting DG at the time of the implementation of the USAP CMA audit. So what I can say is that it’s not an overnight jump. I think all my predecessors played a huge role in setting the foundation. AFCAC played a huge role in achieving this momentous leap by providing the scaffolding. Working groups like BAGASOO also played their roles. There’s a lot of technical experts on the continent. And what we successfully did was to pull the resources of knowledge that we had and Africa came together to support Sierra Leone achieve that great feat. What Sierra Leone had was the leadership and the drive, but we knew that we had our shortage in capacity. We were able to plug those gaps with the support of BAG (Banjul Accord Group), AFCAC and the regional bodies and the regional expert working groups that exist on the continent.
Again, I just want to emphasize that it happened over the span of almost 15 years with successive DGs, but with the overall commitment of the state to advance aviation.
Q: Listening to the cabinet ministers, it seems there is a direction for the transport sector. Is it part of the agenda 2038 of the Government?
A: I would say absolutely yes. We have a very progressive government at the moment. I think appointments like mine are a testament to that. It’s not conventional political appointments as we would have seen them in the past. Having come from the industry, with over a decade’s experience in AVSEC, my direct appointment was to make sure we look at the tangibles in how we rebrand aviation in particular. And I think if you look at the vision of His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, and the structure of his cabinet and appointment of key people within strategic governance roles, it’s towards that agenda. Of course, like the chief minister mentioned, Sierra Leone is an active member of the AU and we are also working in tandem with their agendas and the objectives.
It is really deliberate, unapologetic moves that I think our president and our leadership is making. But definitely, in the aviation sector in the past 8 months, there has been a renewed, enthusiasm and wider acknowledgment of the role that aviation can play. And I am happy to say that, maybe my approach to handling civil aviation or my approach to engaging with other government ministries and stakeholders has played somewhat of a central role in changing that perspective.
Q: Congratulations. For a young woman you have done fantastically well but going forward, what are you doing to ensure that another girl-child has this opportunity in Sierra Leone?
A: We have a responsibility when we come into these roles to be that vision for other people, especially our young women, be their role model. So, a way of making sure that it’s sustainable is by making it visible, by letting other young women and girls see, I am here and you are going to be here, and you will be here, if you aspire to do that. I think, also, we need to use our offices in practical ways to encourage more women and girls to come into the sector. About few weeks ago, I was invited by a small group of young women. They created an organization of young women in leadership in Sierra Leone, and they are promoting advocacy of women and girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.) And I just thought how amazing that is because our field is dominated by these main subjects. So that’s a great way of being part of those initiatives, seeing that my office connects to these young girls that want to see maybe how aircraft are being inspected, get involved in other aspects of the industry that can promote, stimulate their interest and engage them more. Again, what we can do in the capacity of our offices is to put our guards down and allow them to see somebody else doing it.
Q: Some of the problems Sierra Leone has had over time has been capacity. In terms of building capacity, training people, what is the CAA doing?
A: It’s actually a priority ongoing task. That’s the way I see it. We have made it a priority to actually engage with as many CAAs across the globe, to have Memorandums of Understanding for technical assistance and information sharing, as through those missions we build capacity because trainings can be expensive as well. But we also look at CAAs that have strengths in different areas. For example, I just recently signed an MoU for technical assistance with South Africa CAA, and they have over 90 in the area of safety, that’s a pool of resources, a pool of experts that we can exchange whether it’s regulations or practical oversight activity. This is training and capacity building.
I am also a big believer of bringing as much training as I can to Sierra Leone. The beauty of having worked in the industry is that in your journey, your workshops, your conferences, you meet people, you meet experts that are always ready to render their services. So we have been bringing a lot of training to Sierra Leone in the fields of AVSEC, in the fields of cargo, in the fields of general operations so that more Sierra Leoneans, more CAA staff, but also the wider ecosystem can benefit from these trainings to enhance our industry.
Q: You mentioned about turning Sierra Leone and The Gambia into domestic operations. Can you shed more light on that?
A: I think it is one of the most exciting takeaways from this Airshow. It’s a plus for both countries. And we are hoping it will give us one market access, the population of Gambia and the population of Sierra Leone where merging gives us a much bigger pool to facilitate air transport movement.
And I think that’s the whole concept of domestication and SAATM in general. It’s making that pool, that available mass of individuals that can engage in air transport wider because we have so many smaller populations in different countries. And if you remove those barriers, it’s one mass of people that that can engage. I think for The Gambia and Sierra Leone, the proximity, the same potentials in tourism, which they’re maximizing actually, and that Sierra Leone can also benefit from this harmonization and domestication will really boost those sectors as one unified approach. I think what’s also positive is that we just spoke earlier about training and expertise. These activities also enhance the capacity of both CAAs, so it is a very exciting time ahead for both countries.
Q: We heard about the growth in passengers from over a 100,000 to 200,000. What is your projection for the future?
A: I would love to say millions and millions of passengers, and that is ultimately where I think we will be. We heard the Ambassador West for SAATM, Captain Boyo saying that Sierra Leone is going to be the Dubai of Africa, and that is the aspiration. But we are realistic that we have to take tangible steps. You know, for me, what I loved and appreciated about this Airshow is that we have achievables. We can go to these conferences, we spend days, and we talk around the issues, but our takeaways are not as tangible as we have seen in this Airshow in Sierra Leone. We have a road map. We have clear strategies that will be implemented to deliver the results.
In the immediate term, we are at 202,000 a year. I mean, post Covid recovery is good, so we are looking at obviously building up to over the 300,000 and really as a long-term strategy, there’s no reason why we can’t hit a million passengers or more a year, which is why these engagements are also very important because the CAAs can’t do that on their own. I mean, we make sure our regulations are friendly, we ensure the facilitation where we can, but we need all of the sectors. We need trade, we need finance, we need tourism to really align their stars with us to hit this one million passenger target in let’s say 5 years. I think that’s fair and realistic. And I think that with the operators also coming on board, it will hasten that in a way because every operator wants increased revenue. Our situation is unique because we have a private operator of the airport, it’s not state operated. But even as a private commercial business, more passengers mean more revenue.
So that means it’s in their interest to support the regulatory bodies and the policy makers in achieving policies that will bring more traffic, even if it means taking a hit in certain charges and costs at the initial stage. I am glad to say we have a collective commitment from the industry and from the politicians, the wider government structure. For us it was a happy day because it’s a rare combination to have our ministers, our politicians, and our industry, which we supervise, all coming together and say yes, CAA, we agree, and we will do this with you. And that is the result we need for SAATM to be successful.
Q: When you are not working, how do you relax?
A: I am a mom of 2, I have a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old. They are a full time first job. But when you have a passion for the job you do, you don’t see it as a job. What that means is sometimes you end up working all the time. And end up turning your second job into your first job.
And our industry, it’s almost not a job, it’s almost a lifestyle. It’s a part of you, because it’s 24 hours. Your access, your availability is always on. You are always on alert because you’re dealing with lives. You are dealing with an industry where it’s so dynamic that anything can happen at any time. Though processes and systems are in place, but your brain is always switched on to activity at work. You make sure that, you have as best as possible systems and the processes to prevent any safety concern. But again, we know there’s no absolutes in anything. And what we do is make sure that, in any eventuality, that there’s also a robust response system and our contingencies are also important. But outside of my first job and my second job, I like to go to the beach. We have a lot of beaches. That keeps me happy.