On behalf of the SLEITI Champion and the MSG in Sierra Leone, I thank the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the German International Cooperation (GIZ) and the World Bank for organizing the EITI Regional Conference and for inviting a delegation from Sierra Leone to participate in the sharing of experiences, exchange of ideas and in identifying opportunities and challenges that will enable our extractive resources in our respective countries become the engine of growth and sustainable development.

We are of the view that the strength of EITI lies in peer learning, and as such, we are prepared to share our experiences and to take to Sierra Leone best practices that can positively impact on the sector.
Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen, the presentation topic-"Achieving Compliance-The Challenges" is apt for the Sierra Leone situation because, the EITI family will like to know why has Sierra Leone not yet attained compliance when other countries have attained that. At the same time, the topic is implicitly requiring us here representing Sierra Leone to be frank with the issues, and this we will definitely do. Download here: