Denise Aki-Sawyerr

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. Mayor 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 1.2m trees against #FreetownTheTreeTown’s 1m trees target and securing the recently concluded feasibility study for the introduction