Freetown, 7th September 2026- Sierra Leone’s Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, has announced the government’s plan to recruit about 800 Native Administrative officers nationwide as part of efforts to strengthen security presence and improve local governance across the country’s chiefdoms.
The Vice President announced a high-level regional consultation in Makeni, where he engaged Paramount Chiefs, local councils, ministers and other key stakeholders on strengthening decentralisation and improving the delivery of local governance.
The consultation, supported by the World Bank, provided a platform for local governance actors to identify challenges affecting service delivery and propose practical measures to strengthen governance and development at community level.
Addressing the gathering, Vice President Juldeh Jalloh said the proposed recruitment was informed by recommendations from Paramount Chiefs for increased security presence at chiefdom level.
“The Paramount Chiefs have raised the issue of having police officers at the chiefdom level, and we are looking at recruiting about 800 chiefdom police officers across the country.”
He explained that the recruitment process would be undertaken in consultation with chiefdom administrations and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that deployment responds to the security needs and realities of individual communities.
“We want to make sure that the recruitment and deployment are done in consultation with the chiefdom administrations, so that we can properly understand where the security gaps are and how best to address them.”
The Vice President emphasised that strengthening security at chiefdom level was an important component of effective local governance, peace and development.
“You cannot have effective decentralisation without functional institutions and security at the local level. Our communities must feel safe, and our local institutions must have the support they need to perform their responsibilities.”
The proposed recruitment of approximately 800 Native Administrative officers forms part of government’s broader efforts to strengthen chiefdom administration and improve the responsiveness of state institutions at community level.
During the consultation, the National Council of Paramount Chiefs also presented a range of recommendations aimed at strengthening chiefdom administration. These included addressing inter-chiefdom boundary disputes, improving mobility and administrative support, enhancing revenue mobilisation, involving Paramount Chiefs more actively in development initiatives, and increasing security presence across chiefdoms.
Vice President Juldeh Jalloh welcomed the recommendations and reaffirmed government’s commitment to working with chiefdom administrations to address the concerns raised.
“The recommendations from the Paramount Chiefs are very important because they come from people who are directly involved in local governance. We will take these recommendations seriously as we move forward with the decentralisation reform process.”
He said the regional consultations were intended to ensure that decentralisation reforms reflected the realities and priorities of communities across the country.
Government intends to use the outcome of the regional engagements to inform a two-day national symposium aimed at developing an operational framework for decentralisation reforms. This will subsequently be followed by engagements with communities at district level to explain and discuss the reforms to be implemented.
The Makeni consultation therefore represents another step in government’s efforts to deepen decentralisation, strengthen local institutions and ensure that communities play a greater role in shaping governance and development at the local level.
