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SIERRA LEONE’S ANNUAL REPORT 2013 TO KIMBERLEY PROCESS CERTIFICATION SCHEME
INSTITUTIONAL FRAME WORK:
The Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources is the body that formulates policies and the final signatory
of the KP Certificate. The newly formed National Minerals Agency formed by an Act called “The National
Minerals Agency Act 2012” is the body responsible for the implementation of all policies formulated by
the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Resources on all minerals matters in Sierra Leone. The National
Minerals Agency (NMA) has five Directorates among which are the Directorate of Precious Minerals
Trading and the Directorate of Mines. These two Directorates deal directly with diamond matters
including the Kimberly Process Certificate. Other institutions are the National Revenue Authority
(Customs), the Office of National Security, the Anti Corruption Commission and the Police. The latter
three institutions are basically to investigate crime related matters in diamonds for eventual
prosecution.
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK:
The revised Mines and Minerals Act 2009 and the newly approved National Minerals Agency Act, 2012
regulates the diamond industry in Sierra Leone. The Mines and Minerals Act 2009 sets the policy
framework and the Nationals Minerals Agency Act 2012 has the mandate for implementation. The
National Minerals Agency Act 2012 provides for the establishment of the National Minerals Agency.
Under the National Minerals Agency are two Directorates that are crucial in the implementation of the
KPCS. The Directorate of Mines is in charge of diamond productions, licenses and cadastral whilst the
Directorate of Precious Minerals Trading has the responsibility for valuation, import and export, auditing
and intelligence. The Directorate of Precious Minerals Trading is the custodian of the KP certificate as
well as the issuance of the KP Certificate. The focal Person for the KP is the Director of Precious Minerals
Trading (Mr. Jinnah Ibrahim jibrahim@nma.gov.sl or jinaibrahim@yahoo.co.uk ) and other KP contact
persons are Samuel B Koroma skoroma@nma.gov.sl,sbk155853@yahoo.com and Mohamed B Bah
mbbah@nma.gov.sl or mbailorkjb@gmail.com
IMPORT AND EXPORT REGIME:
The Directorate of Precious Minerals Trading (PMT) is responsible for the import and export of rough
diamonds and the collection of the export duty. Hardly does the PMT receive import of rough diamonds.
Except in a situation where goods exported are re-­‐exported from the designated country and come in as
import. Such situation arises where an exporter is unable to market his or her goods. In such a situation
the imported goods must be declared at the customs office at the Freetown International Airport at
Lungi sealed with a KP Certificate from the exporting country. The parcel are examined by a Custom
Officer and forwarded to the PMT office sealed and tampered free. At the PMT Office the parcel is

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opened in the presence of a Custom Officer, Government Mines Monitor and the Director of PMT.The
goods are then cross-­‐checked by one of the Valuers to check for weight and sizes as against the
information in our records and digital camera before initial export. If the goods tallies with the PMT
information, then it is released to the exporter either to sell in the open market locally or to buy
additional for further export. In such a situation, the Government imposes a further export duty.
However, if the exporter wants to re-­‐direct his or her goods to another destination that is a KP member,
then it would not attract another tax levy. In a situation the imported goods is suspicious, then the
exporter would be investigated by the Government Mines Monitor and if it is crime related, the police
would be invited for further prosecution.
In the case of export, the legally registered diamond exporter brings his or her goods to the PMT
situated at the Bank of Sierra Leone in the heart of Freetown. The exporter must give the PMT a 24hr
notice in readiness for valuation. On arrival with the goods, the exporter has to present his export
licenses, sales books, bank statement and the schedule ‘B’ stating his or her own value. Proving all these
documents authentic, the goods are then weighed in the presence of the Director of PMT, Government
Mines Monitor, Customs Officer and the Diamond Exporter. After verification of weight, the goods are
then sized into classification by a trained Valuer and distributed accordingly. At the end of the day PMT
is mandated to come out with three values/prices. The value of the diamond exporter, the value of the
PMT Valuers and the value of the Independent diamond Valuer. Based on the highest of the three
values, PMT imposes a 3.3% export and corporate tax according to law.
Immediately the tax has been paid, PMT sets to prepare and issue the KP Certificate. Sierra Leone’s KP
Certificate is printed by a worldwide reputable company De La Rue plc. It has a serial number which
means it can only be issued once. On the certificate are the H.S. Codes and three signatories. The first
signature is the Director of PMT/Government Valuer or KP contact persons, the second is the Customs
Officer of the National Revenue Authority and the final one is the Minister of Mines and Mineral
Resources or Deputy. Other supporting documents with the KP Certificate are the exporter’s bank
statement, tax payment receipt, export license, and analysis of the three export values. Without these,
the KP document could not be vetted by the Precious Minerals and Mines Directorate for onward
signing by the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources.
Meanwhile, before the issuance of the KP, the exporter’s diamond which has been valued and priced
would have its weight verified with all those who were present at the beginning of the process. After
this, the diamond is boxed in a wooden box, wrapped with a white A4 sized paper and sealed with wax.
The weight and dimension of the box is taken and written on the box with the consignee address. The
consignee address must be a KP country. A digital photography is taken of the diamond box for record
purposes. The Director of PMT, The Customs Officer and the Government Mines Monitor all sign on the
wrapped Diamond box
In the final analysis the issued certificate which has been signed by all stakeholders is then photograph
and put together with the wrapped box in a transparent polythene bag. The polythene bag is also sealed
with waxed. A final photograph is then taken before it is handed over to the licensed diamond exporter
who has only one exit point and that is the Freetown International airport.

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The diamond exporter has documents to present to certain officials at the airport. These are part of the
institutional framework. He or She is given a sealed custom document comprising of the value of the
diamond and the bank statement. The essence of the bank statement is to ensure that the exporter did
some money remittance and secondly to ensure that value did not far exceed the amount of money
remitted into one of the local banks. The other officials at the airport that the exporter has to go
through are the Government Mines Monitors Office and the Office of National Security. Here the
exporter presents them a photocopy of the value of the diamond and a photocopy of the KP certificate.
These officers in turn check with the PMT office that indeed the export was legal.
INTERNAL CONTROL:
Diamond production in Sierra Leone is mainly artisanal, semi-­‐industrial and Industrial. Internal Control in
Sierra Leone begins with the licensing of players from mining to export. The National Minerals Agency
(NMA) through the Directorate of Mines verifies application documents and presents to the Director
General of NMA who recommends approval through the Permanent Secretary/ Ministry of Mines and
Mineral Resources for the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources.
In the case of Exploration/Industrial Mining, the National Minerals Agency forwards application to the
Minerals Advisory Board (MAB) makes recommendation to the Minister of Mines and Minerals
Resources. If approved or declined, the Directorate of Mines prepares letters and sends to client.
The Mines Monitoring Officers (MMO) represents the main interface between diamond miners and
traders and Government. MMOs’ make physical checks on the mining areas to make sure that licensed
miners, dealers and exporters are operating and complying with all relevant laws and regulations. The
newly formed National Minerals Agency (NMA) now has the mandate to oversee the Mines Monitors
who were hired by the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources. NMA is in the process of streamlining
the MMOs’ to make them more effective and efficient. The different levels at which the Mines Monitors
check and verify on sales and record books is the source of information supply for production and export
statistics. They are also the policemen in the mines, in the trade and the export level.

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STATISTICS:
TRADING PARTNERS: In total, Sierra Leone traded with 14 of its trading partners; (EU alone
represented by 10 countries), with Switzerland and EU being the two largest trading partners; importing
54.13% and 39.43% respectively.
SIERRA LEONE DIAMOND EXPORTS FOR 2013
No. of countries Country of
destination
No. of KPC Total Carats Export Value USD
1 Switzerland 20 356,219.24 100,517,764.78
2 EC 122 224,579.73 73,211,382.38
3 Israel 20 2,779.5 3,249,340.37
4 UAE 28 16,715.62 3,079,343.89
5 USA 36 3,262.51 2,310,528.29
6 China 7 441.95 880,211.18
7 Australia 1 404.51 455,350.00
8 India 4 3,415.64 370,693.22
9 Armenia 3 1,034.33 247,355.53
10 Japan 2 58.15 117,000.00
11 Canada 2 25.25 25,119.16
12 Turkey 1 9.40 10,217.78
13 S.Africa 1 8.44 7,350.05
14 Ghana 1 1.08 1000
-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐ -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐ 248 608,955.35 184,482,656.63
Sierra Leone Review Visit 2009
Indeed Sierra Leone reacted or responded on the recommendations. In the 2013 Report you would note
that a lot has been done on the recommendations. Our former Focal Persons is now late. May be he
could have thrown more light on the response on the recommendations made by the last Review Visit.
Attached is a copy of the last report of Review Visit 2009 and the response in red.