Assessing the challenges of diamond mining and its impact on Sierra Leone’s economy

There have been several policies, regulations, and laws on monitoring, directing, and improving the extractive industry in Sierra Leone, but despite strides made by the government, revenues collected from the extractive industry, especially from diamond mining have been minimal and have not in any way benefited the citizens of the country. To critically examine the reason(s) of these abysmal policies and regulatory failures, this research employed a multi-method approach of qualitative, descriptive statistics and documents analysis to investigate the challenges of diamond mining in Sierra Leone and its impact on the country’s economy, using five reports of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiatives, and the resource curse as a theoretical framework. It further argues that the resource curse is still evident in Sierra Leone, and it was among the other many reasons for the bloody civil war in the country, and it also continues to negatively impact the economic growth of the country. This research further reveals that there is still evidence of the resource curse in Sierra Leone, and it lies in either of the dimension of conflict, trade, or institution/corruption inefficiencies. The findings of the study reveal that through the institutionalization of transparency, the problem of public financial management, and unstructured and unaligned policies will be enhanced for proper management of the extractive industry and diamond extraction in particular.