FRSC To Set Up Similar Agency For Sierra Leone

As a prelude to the establishment of a road safety outfit remodeled after the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), a 3- man team from the Corps has undertaken a capacity review of road safety administration in the Republic of Sierra Leone.

This arrangement, according to the FRSC, is in line with the collective drive to promote regional co-operation in the Sub-Sahara which will further actualize the Accra declaration of 2015 and United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011 -2020) that seeks for 50% reduction in road crashes.

The FRSC team, led by Deputy Corps Marshal, Operations, Boboye Oyeyemi was in Sierra Leone at the instance of a request from the Government of Republic of Sierra Leone for the Nigerian Government to provide a technical assistance for developing the capacity for entrenching sustainable road safety management in Sierra Leone.

This request was earlier channeled through the Sierra Leone  Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Nigeria High Commission in Freetown to Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja from which high level meetings were held by the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the FRSC, Osita Chidoka  with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Martin Uhomoibhi on modalities for actualising the request.

Speaking on the technical partnership, the Corps Public Education Officer, Jonas Agwu said “during the 8 days’ visit, the FRSC team assessed the current road safety management situation in the country, studied the policy and operational documents of the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority which is the agency statutorily entrusted with road safety management and drew up a framework, recommended ways forward and developed a time line of activities, policy formulations/implementations and legislations towards entrenching a workable lead agency in Sierra Leone”.

Part of the tasks facing the FRSC team included identifying gaps, mapping out strategies for improvement, proposing action plan and drawing up a framework which could guide the team to be seconded from Nigeria for a period of two years to offer technical assistance to the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority (SLRTA). Pursuant to this, 3 critical areas were identified for technical assistance such as Traffic Warden Corps Training, Road Traffic Crash Data Management and Institutional Capacity Building.

After analysis of road safety situation in Sierra Leone, the FRSC team came up with a restructuring programme for the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority and action plan which will be centered on eleven key areas: Operations and Enforcement, Vehicle Licensing, Driver’s Licensing, Vehicle Inspection, Public Education, Advocacy and Enlightenment, Administration Training, Data Management and ICT, Emergency and Rescue Services, Legal Unit and  Interagency Co-operation.

During the visit, the FRSC delegation had interactive sessions with the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, the Vice President, Dr. Ernest Koroma, the Secretary to the President, Alhaji Samuel Samsumau, the Transport Minister, the Attorney-General of Sierra Leone, the Inspector-General of the Sierra Leone Police and media representatives drawn from the print and electronic media.

The invitation of the FRSC by the Sierra Leone government was driven by the modest success recorded by the Corps, especially in the areas of massive deployment of ICT infrastructure to manage road safety and traffic administration, resulting in appreciable reduction in road crashes and fatalities and attracting international recognition, including the World Bank which declared FRSC as the best example of a lead agency in Africa whose success story is recommended for replication across the continent. The Sierra Leone project will be replicated by the Corps in other African countries such as Mali and Togo.

The Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority likened to the FRSC in Nigeria, is transforming into the lead agency on the road safety management in Sierra Leone. It also supervises the Traffic Warden Corps in the country and was established in 1996 by an Act of Parliament to regulate, co-ordinate and promote Road Safety activities within the transport sector. In the same vein, this agency also deals with the registration of vehicles, training and licensing of drivers and assists the Police in traffic control.

Interestingly, this technical partnership is not only in compliance with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol on free movement of people, goods and services but is also envisaged to further the cause of the West African Road Safety Organization (WARSO) in the Republic of Sierra Leone, which was established in 2008 to promote and reinforce road safety in the sub region with the FRSC Corps Marshal as President.