Freetown, Sierra Leone – Global Lite Refinery Sierra Leone (“GL-Refinery”) on Sunday, July 17, 2022, held a ceremony to celebrate the ground breaking and launching of a new palm oil refinery corporation. According to Sahr Lebbie, GL-Refinery’s owner and CEO, the company aims to build a modern and sustainable agrobusiness to benefit from the increasing demand for palm kernel oil and cassava processed products in the West African region. Tessa, Decker, another owner of Global Lite Refinery, also stated, “the company also aims to help reduce poverty in Sierra Leone by creating good-paying jobs for women and youths in the agrobusiness sector, that consequentially also improves the country’s physical and social infrastructure. As such, also support the Sierra Leonean government’s efforts to achieve food security.” To further that effort, the facility shall have a refining capacity of 10,400 metric tons of palm nuts per year and most of the palm kernel nuts shall be procured from smallholder farmers composing of women and youths.
Also in attendance at the launching ceremony were community leaders like Paramount Chief, Joshua Kamanda, Muminatu Sesay; local government officials and business leaders, and hundreds of local Bo district residents who came to support the ribbon cutting ceremony. The facility is expected to become fully operational later this year, by December 2022.