Mohamed Borbor Mansaray, PR Manager-RMFA

Road Maintenance Fund Administration (RMFA) completed its Covid-19 intervention exercise by donating veronica buckets, receiver buckets, hand-washing machines, bins, facemasks, liquid soaps, and several other items to the Western Area Urban District Covid Center, stationed at Special Court, Jumu Kenyatta Road, Freetown.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RMFA, Mr. Mohamed Kallon stated that RMFA was established by the Road Maintenance Fund Administration Act No. 3 of 2010 to finance the maintenance of the core road network and provide for other related matters.

He said RMFA’s business is to provide funds for road maintenance projects implemented by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA)and 22 Local Councils. Therefore RMFA’s responsibility in the Covid pandemic is to ensure that road users are safe while on the roads.

CEO Kallon said Coronavirus has negatively affected the economy of Sierra Leone. He thanked the President for his timely intervention in the fight against the pandemic. This show of patriotism, vision, and quality leadership during this crisis period triggered us to put our shoulders together and support the President’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO Kallon said the data shows that the Western Area has a lot of unidentified or asymptomatic cases, and this makes the situation worse. Interestingly, many people may go with the notion that the Western Area being the seat of governance has all the resources to handle Covid-19, but that is not the case. It is however not too late for RMFA to make such an intervention in the Western Area because our focus is on the statistics, not the resources.

Moreover, CEO Kallon added that though cases have dropped in the last two weeks, Covid-19 continues to ravage and kill our people; disrupting the socioeconomic development and targeting the people who happen to be our principal shareholders and contributors to the Fund we manage at RMFA.

We believe that decisively defeating COVID-19 will enhance the speedy return to a normal business environment leading to socioeconomic development. As this happens, the people will buy more fuel and we in turn maintain more roads.

He continued that the devastating nature of the pandemic to the developed world with sophisticated medical structures will definitely be worse for a country like Sierra Leone where medical facilities are fragile.

He stressed the need for mass public awareness campaigns, hand washing, and the use of facemasks as a challenge because the larger national populace is still in doubt about the existence of COVID-19; its mode of transmission and prevention.

Furthermore, he encouraged everybody to always wash their hands and wear facemasks, especially in gatherings and public spaces. He stressed that hand-washing and wearing facemasks should be a Must at the workplace!

He advised the public to listen and adhere to health-related information on COVID-19 prevention. That is the only way we can decisively defeat the common enemy Covid-19 he opined.

In conclusion, CEO Kallon expressed hope that the donated COVID-19 prevention items will be judiciously used at road checkpoints, interception points, and COVID centers to help eradicate the virus in these environs.

Receiving the items on behalf of the Covid Center, Madam Miatta French who is the Head was excited about the donation saying, “Prevention is better than cure.”She confirmed that there are a lot of asymptomatic cases or people who may look healthy but carry the disease; such people are likely to spread COVID-19 to others. She said the best way to stop it spreading is to always wash hands and wear facemasks.

Ms. French applauded RMFA for their timely gesture and promised to contact the Drivers Union for advice in the distribution of the COVID-19 prevention items. She said charity begins at home, so the hand-washing machines will be retained at the office while the rest is distributed.

In her closing remarks, Ms. French thanked RMFA for considering the Western Area which is usually left out of such goodwill gestures, thinking we are always covered by the central government.

Deputy CEO, Bashirr Sheriff was in attendance at the Western Area Urban District Covid-19 Center in Freetown. There were similar events where RMFA donated COVID-19 prevention items in the other four regions: Northwest, South, Northeast and East.