YVONNE AKI-SAWYERR OBE

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was Mayor of Freetown from May 2018 to February 2023 and was re-elected to serve for a second term in June 2023. A finance professional with over 25 years of private sector experience in strategic planning, risk management consulting and project management, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr has adopted an inclusive, data-driven approach to addressing challenges in the city. In her first term, she championed the 4-year “Transform Freetown” plan which detailed 19 concrete targets across 11 sectors; annually published Transform Freetown reports that document progress made against targets can be found at https://fcc.gov.sl. Aki-Sawyerr’s notable achievements include the construction and operation of Freetown’s first ever wastewater treatment plant, the digitalization and expansion of the city’s property rate system, the planting and tracking of 977,000 trees as part of the #FreetownTheTreeTown 1m trees target and securing the ongoing feasibility study for the introduction of a mass transit cable car system for the city.

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s second term development plan “Transform Freetown – Transforming Lives” is focused on the creation of 120,000 decent jobs for women and youth through climate action, the growth of heritage tourism and the digital economy underpinned by investments in human development.

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was a Schwab Foundation Outstanding Public Social Innovator for the Year 2023, she was featured by Time Magazine in the inaugural Time100 Climate List 2023, the Time100 Next 2021 List and by the BBC in the BBC 100 Women 2020 List. She is the Co-Chair of C40 Cities Global Group Steering Committee, a network of almost 100 cities committed to addressing climate change. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s TedTalk “How to turn dissatisfaction into action” has had over 2.2million views.

A team player with a demonstrable record of leading institutional change, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is passionate about the development of Sierra Leone and the transformation of Freetown.  She is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MSc in Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics and a BSc Hons in Economics from Fourah Bay College.  She is married with two children.