*Just a month after bagging VP seat at the World Petroleum Council
Abubakar Hashim
Sierra Leone’s Director General, National Petroleum Regulatory Agency NPRA, Brima Baliwa Koroma, has been nominated, in a stiff competition, for the prestigious “ Africa Petroleum Regulator of the year 2025” at the 2025 Africa Business Leadership Awards ABLA.
A highly competitive award ceremony, involving oil and non -oil producing countries, Sierra Leone’s NPRA DG, Baluwa Koroma’s visionary and sterling leadership, in sustaining supply and price stability in the downstream petroleum sector, tops the list.
His radical and total overhaul of the sector, which was once a mess, with long queues, perennial shortages and price volatility, has, today, resulted in stable prices and regular supply of the products
There are uniform prices nationwide, transparency in regulatory frameworks and a sudden surge in foreign investments exceeding $25 million.
This has translated into a leap in government revenue from a paltry Le 473 billion to Le 1.3 trillion as of 2023, a 275% increase.
More oil marketing companies OICs are on board, including Aminata, Conex, All Petroleum Products, Malador, among others.
The nomination of DG, NPRA, has positioned Sierra Leone as a new regional role model for transparency in energy governance.
Sierra Leone was nominated in a stiff competition among regulators from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa.
*Abubakar Hashim is the Freetown-based West Africa Bureau Chief of TheNEWS