Inspiring CEOs
A childhood spent waiting outside a flour mill fueled a baker’s drive to reclaim a neglected mill, boost local production, create jobs, and end Sierra Leone’s import reliance.
Story by Caitríona Palmer and Birom Seck
A childhood spent waiting outside a flour mill fueled a baker’s drive to reclaim a neglected mill, boost local production, create jobs, and end Sierra Leone’s import reliance.
Story
As a young boy, Amadu Juldeh Sowe watched as his father, a second-generation baker in Freetown, Sierra Leone, would stand outside the metal gates of the city’s only flour mill, located within the city port.
Denied permission to enter, Sowe’s father would wait patiently to collect bags of flour that he and his son would then carry back to the family-run business, the Brass Street Bakery.
Now, decades later, Sowe, who left school early to help support his family, is the owner of that same flour factory, renamed Sierra Leone Flour Mill Limited (SLFM). Two years ago, pursuing a dream to expand domestic flour production and create new jobs, Sowe received a $12 million loan from IFC—with support from the government of Canada—to build a $20 million state-of-the-art milling and storage facility on the same site where he once stood with his father.
The expansion is already having a demonstrable impact on local pocketbooks, thanks to higher flour yields, better quality flour, new jobs, and increased earnings within the wider commodity supply chain.
The $20 million expansion of SLFM includes state-of-the-art equipment that will speed up processing time and expand capacity.
“My vision is very simple. It is to create jobs for Sierra Leoneans. Today, we don’t need dollars to import flour. We are not going to have any flour shortage, thanks to IFC and the Canadian government’s support.” Amadu Juldeh Sowe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SLFM
The newly expanded SLFM site sits next to the factory’s old flour mill silos, towering industrial momuments from the past.
In 2015, when Sowe purchased the mill, it had fallen into operational and structural decline. The local market was saturated with imported flour, and skeptics questioned Sowe’s strategic vision.
But Sowe, a baker at heart, understood the transformative power of flour. It had once changed the trajectory of his family’s life. Now, with Sowe’s financial and supply chain management expertise—combined with international partnership—it was Sierra Leone’s turn.
The $12 million loan received in 2024—combined with $6 million from IFC and $6 million concessional funding from the government of Canada through the Canada-IFC Facility for Resilient Food Systems (Canada FRFS)—allowed SLFM to speed up expansion of the mill and storage facility.
The new mill, opened in April 2026 by the President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, will facilitate an impressive 450 metric tons per day production capacity, up from 150 metric tons a day. This significantly increases access to fortified wheat products for Sierra Leoneans, strengthening resilience in a low‑income, import‑dependent market facing food price volatility.
Equipped with energy-efficient technologies, new safety measures, and a high-tech quality control lab, the mill embodies the best pioneering entrepreneurship. Enhanced with new fully automated flour silos, the expanded mill will also treble SLFM’s storage capacity to almost 30,000 tons.
Equipped with energy-efficient technologies, new safety measures, and a high-tech quality control lab, the mill embodies the best of pioneering entrepreneurship.
“We can now ensure that there is an adequate supply of flour throughout the year, with no shortfalls,” says Morrison Conteh, SLFM’s Managing Director.
The new mill also lessens Sierra Leone’s heavy dependence on flour imports, decreasing the drain on the country’s foreign currency reserves and helping position Sierra Leone to move from net flour importer to net exporter.
“There will come a time when we no longer need to import flour,” Conteh says, “because of the capacity at which we are currently producing.”
In addition, a neat line of up to 10 trucks bound for Senegal waits outside the mill each day, ready to be loaded with sacks of wheat middling, a nutrient-rich byproduct of the flour-milling process used in livestock feed.
Daily Bread to National Nourishment
Across town, at the United Bakery in Thunder Hill in east Freetown, bakery owner, Amadu, reflects his bakery’s demonstrable increase in bread production, and profits since the completion of the mill expansion.
“Our sales have improved since the flour mill expanded,” he says. “We no longer have flour shortages like before. We are making more profits.”
At the United Bakery in Thunder Hill, East Freetown, sales have improved thanks to the recent mill expansion. Bakers there now use up to 30 bags of SLFM flour a day, a dramatic increase.
Because of the mill’s increased capacity, United Bakery now uses up to 30 bags of SLFM’s branded ‘Life Flour’ a day, a significant expansion from before. IFC advisory support, funded by the Government of Japan and paired with Gates Foundation grant funding for fortification equipment, helped SLFM become the first company in Africa to adopt IFC’s food fortification solution alongside a gender-smart initiative. IFC worked with the mill to develop a vitamin-enriched flour formula, finance precision fortification and quality-control equipment, and train staff to embed fortification into daily operations, clearing the path for the first locally produced fortified wheat flour in Sierra Leone.
In parallel, IFC’s gender-smart advisory program strengthened workplace policies and equipped leaders and human resources staff with tools to turn gender commitments into daily management practices. The program introduced practical measures to improve women’s recruitment, retention, and career progression, embedding gender considerations into SLFM’s people management systems and helping create a safer, more inclusive workplace by mid-2026.
From Factory Gates to Family Tables
Across Sierra Leone Flour Mill’s extensive supply chain, the mill expansion is also helping to create jobs, both direct, and indirect.
“With the new mill, we have employed more people from different communities,” says Conteh. “These people, now with money in their pockets, and the salaries and allowances they receive, will be able to take care of their family needs.”
Freetown’s youth employment pool is benefitting too, says SLFM’s human resources manager, Zeinab Jalloh. “With the new expansion, there’s a lot of opportunities for young people,” she says. “We are proud to employ Sierra Leoneans, and to work together to achieve our goals.”
Story Source: ifc.org
