Yvonne
Aki-Sawyerr

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was sworn in as Mayor of Freetown in May 2018 with a commitment to transform Freetown using an inclusive, data-driven approach to address challenges in the city. The 3-year Transform Freetown plan details 19 concrete targets across 11 sectors and covers issues ranging from waste management to improving urban planning and tackling environmental degradation. A finance professional with over 25 years of private sector experience in strategic planning, risk management consulting and project management, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s public sector engagement began with her work as the Director of Planning at the National Ebola Response Centre during the Ebola epidemic of 2014-2015 and her subsequent role as Delivery Team Lead for the President’s Recovery Priorities – a multi-stakeholder programme to drive socio-economic recovery post Ebola. In 1999, she co-founded the Sierra Leone War Trust for Children (SLWT) which supports disadvantaged children in Sierra Leone today. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr 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 and has two children.

Find out more:
Freetown Mentorship Programme