Why Baluwa Koroma’s Contract Was Extended

By: Lansana Fofanah.

It has pleased His Excellency the President Dr Julius Maada Bio to extend the appointment of the Executive Chairman of the Petroleum Regulatory Agency, Brima Baluwa Koroma.
The extension came after he had diligently served and regulated the once-challenging downstream petroleum sector for six years; bringing reforms and transformation.
Despite Sierra Leone being a net importing country, Brima Baluwa Koroma’s six years tenure has revived the agency with a nationalistic viability by increasing its GDP strength.

The Reforms

Baluwa Koroma took up the PRA job during a challenging moment with a low investor’s appetite.
His strategic transformative drives and in-depth knowledge in the sector , made him overcome those challenhes by opening up the sector and making it attractive.
This initiative helped to curb energy poverty by flexibly regulating the sector and bringing in more investors in the country.
In the past, it used to be National Petroleum, Total, and Leon Oil Marketing Companies.

Increase in the number of OMCs

Today, the sector has been expanded to have strategic players like the Aminata and Sons, Malador Associates , All Petroleum Products and others serving the industry as OMCs.
The country now boasts of having two petroleum jetties which has ensured the smooth berthing and offloading of big vessels without hassle.

Increase Number of Gas Stations

From a few gas stations operating in 2018, there are over 300 gas stations across the country now, due to the effective and efficient regulatory framework instituted by Baluwa’s administration. This has seen a decrease in hoarding and shortage of petroleum products even in remote areas.

Compliance In Petroleum Laws

The compliance rate with petroleum laws has rapidly increased across the country.

Seeing petroleum products as hazardous, Brima Koroma and teams ensures the full compliance in safety and standard of gas stations.
With strict adherence policy, every station coming up is thoroughly scrutinized to ensure they pose no threat to human and environmental safety.

Revenue
From a stagnated figure of Four Hundred and Seventy Three Billion in 2018, the Agency has been transformed to a Trillion entity due to the close monitoring and regulation without additional tax. This has made the Agency a key source of income for the government; thereby meeting service delivery for the people of Sierra Leone.

PLATTS

PLATTS is a global platform that monitors daily operations and prices of petroleum products across the world.
The Agency used to rely on OMC’s for information which was hardly coming on time.

Being a seasoned industry administrator, Brima Baluwa Koroma ensured that the Agency subscribed to the platform, thereby having real time information on a daily basis. This has been helping the Agency to determine the upward and downward movement in global refinery prices.

New Pricing Formula

One of the major obstacles for the growth of the sector was that of the old pricing formula with lots of bottle necks.
Brima Koroma pushed for a successful review of the formula to make the sector more transparent and accommodating to all sector players.
The new formula has enabled the Agency to effect any change in price which has led to a consecutive drop in pump prices since it came into effect a few months ago.

*Transforming from PRA to NPRA*

A key reform that the Agency badly needs is to have the requisite regulatory power.
Brima Baluwa Koroma has been pushing for that since he took over the Agency as it would not only make the government depend on taxes, but also participate in the value chain distribution.
Currently, the government has no stake from importation, to distribution which makes it very hard to address shock in the sector.
The seamless transition from PRA to NPRA could only be championed and successfully done by someone with not just a vast knowledge in the sector, but initiated the whole process.
Transforming to an Authority with five more regulatory reforms, effective service delivery for the public, efficient reporting, enhancement of GoSL revenues, industry expansion, transparency & accountability of the downstream sector and lots more.
Therefore, it was the wisest and timely decision for President Bio to reassign Baluwa Koroma with a new but achievable task to complete what he started.
Baluwa’s tenure could be described as the most successful one among his predecessors.

To whom much is given, much is expected.