Sherbro Island: can Sierra Leone build a global business hub?

**Ed Butler** (0:03)
Coming ashore on a desert island.

**Mohamed Robinson** (0:06)
Here is Bon, you are now on the island.

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (0:10)
The beautiful Bon island.

**Mohamed Robinson** (0:12)
I know you are going to enjoy the sea.

**Ed Butler** (0:14)
I'm Ed Butler and today on Business Daily on the BBC World Service, I'm in Sierra Leone looking to see what a plan to transform this one island could say about the economic fortunes of the region as a whole.

**Siaka Stevens** (0:28)
Basically, a modern Singapore of West Africa that is sustainable and open for everyone, a place where people can live, work, play and retire.

**Florence Lilema Kata** (0:40)
We have a history of ambitious projects that come into pass. We hope it's not going to be another one.

**Ed Butler** (0:50)
A bold plan to fix underdeveloped Africa, that's Business Daily from the BBC.
It's end of school in Bonth, on the island of Sherbro, population 15,000 or so. It's a five-hour drive down here from the capital, Freetown. In centuries past, Sherbro was a bustling British colonial trading post. Timber, gold and also people sold as slaves to the American plantations. Since independence, the district's fallen into economic decline. Hello, sir. Are you the pastor?

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (1:30)
Yes, I'm a priest in charge.

**Ed Butler** (1:32)
Nice to meet you. My name is Ed from BBC. What's your name?

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (1:36)
Ed, Reverend Richard Edward Harding.

**Ed Butler** (1:38)
Shall we go inside?

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (1:39)
Yes, yes.

**Ed Butler** (1:41)
Reverend Harding and I step into the town's main Anglican church.
Wow, the beautiful old church. This has been here since the 1800s, I believe.

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (1:53)
1896

**Ed Butler** (1:55)
1896

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (1:56)
And it was built purely by the people of Sherbro.

**Ed Butler** (2:00)
There are wooden boards on the roof. There's a corrugated iron roof, but some of the boards are coming down. A pulpit up on a plinth.
This is a classic Victorian Anglican church. But like so much else here, it has seen better days.

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (2:16)
Yes, when this structure was built, at that time, this place was jam-packed. You know, we have a lot of dignitaries who are supporting the church at that time. But looking at the past gone by, I'm finding it very, very difficult for me to take care of repairs.
Very little money.

**Ed Butler** (2:37)
Tell me about Bonth. What kind of a town would you say Bonth is?

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (2:41)
Bonth is a peaceful place. Very, very friendly.
People are very, very hospitable. Most of the fishing and the teaching.

**Ed Butler** (2:52)
People are teachers?

**Reverend Richard Edward Harding** (2:53)
Yes, they are teachers. Most people are teachers.
You know, we still have people that are visionaries. They do think of better things, really, particularly the development of this place. There is now something happening that is very much tangible in the municipality and in the Sherbro Island. You know, and the development will be something that will be really, really cherished.
You know, so that the population in this place can increase. It can boom.

**Ed Butler** (3:23)
This is what he's talking about.
The promotional video for the Sherbro Island Project computer-generated images. Imagine future world-class clinics here, colleges, eco resorts, even a new Pan-African movies studio on the island by 2040 Most of it is the brainchild of this man.

**Siaka Stevens** (3:49)
It was never in my wildest dreams to ever think I'll be trying to build an eco city on an island off the coast of Sierra Leone. However, the people that have joined our team would not be putting their names at risks if they didn't think there was potential to do this.

**Ed Butler** (4:11)
That's Siaka Stevens. Raised in the UK, he's a former banker and events promoter. He's also the grandson of Sierra Leone's first president, so he does have connections. And he has a bold business plan.

**Siaka Stevens** (4:25)
So the vision for Sherbro is to basically build what I would describe as an Afro-dynamic eco-city. Basically a modern Singapore of West Africa that is functional, sustainable and open for everyone. A place where people can live, work, play and retire. And the foundation of that is enabling an environment that protects private and human capital.

**Ed Butler** (4:51)
Simple then. There have been years of hype about this vision, which was first announced in 2019, but so far the only tangible result has been a signed deal with Sierra Leone's government, allowing Sherbro Holdings its own administrative and legal autonomy.
Even its globally celebrated co-sponsor, the Hollywood film star Idris Elba, who is a childhood friend of Siaka Stevens, well he accepts in media interviews that this does have the look of a long shot.