The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of Sierra Leone, Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka, along with the Deputy Minister of Finance I, Kadiatu Allie, recently participated in the pivotal Regional Forum on Coffee Value Chain Development in Africa, held in Marrakech, Morocco, from May 5 to 6, 2026. This forum marked a significant milestone aimed at transforming Africa's coffee industry from primarily exporting raw commodities to developing a competitive, value-added sector that can thrive in international markets.
Bringing together representatives from coffee-producing countries across the continent, the forum focused on enhancing the quality of coffee, improving processing techniques, ensuring traceability, and facilitating investment opportunities to strengthen coffee value chains. Co-organized by prominent entities such as the Islamic Development Bank, the Kingdom of Morocco, the African Coffee Hub, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the event gathered government officials, development finance institutions, private sector actors, and industry experts to discuss actionable strategies for building competitive and inclusive coffee value chains throughout Africa.
During the forum, Dr. Kpaka made significant contributions that emphasized Sierra Leone's commitment to revitalizing its coffee sector. He highlighted the government's efforts to increase production, enhance value addition, improve market access, and invest in specialty coffee production, particularly in Stenophylla coffee. Known for its exceptional quality and resilience to warmer climates, Stenophylla coffee positions Sierra Leone favorably as climate change continues to impact global coffee production.
Moreover, Deputy Minister Kadiatu Allie reaffirmed the government's dedication to creating an enabling environment for farmers. This includes improving access to finance and implementing financial incentives to bolster the Feed Salone Programme, which aims to enhance the agricultural sector's productivity and sustainability.
A key outcome of Sierra Leone's involvement in the forum was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and African Coffee Hub Invest. This agreement establishes a framework for technical cooperation designed to strengthen various strategic areas of Sierra Leone's coffee sector, such as post-harvest handling, quality control, traceability, aggregation, logistics, branding, value addition, investment preparation, and market access. This partnership is expected to create substantial opportunities for increasing farmer incomes, generating employment, boosting export earnings, and attracting significant investments into the agricultural sector.
The structured discussions at the forum also included beneficiary countries such as Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Togo, and Uganda, all focused on unlocking the vast potential of African coffee. The collective aim is to support smallholder farmers in accessing international markets through enhanced trade integration strategies. Furthermore, the forum emphasized a broader continental ambition of enhancing Africa's control over its coffee industry through sustainable agricultural practices and establishing direct links with global buyers.
In addition to the forum discussions, the Sierra Leone delegation met with Hajar Alafifa, CEO of OCP, and Mamadu Bah, Director of Agribusiness at IsDB Africa. These discussions revolved around opportunities to optimize the coffee sector and implement the Feed Salone Strategy, which includes a proposed USD 65 million grant request aimed at supporting agribusiness development in Sierra Leone.
As reported by panafricanvisions.com.
