Hotel Market Update: Sierra Leone, Liberia & Republic of Guinea

Béatrice Montagnier, Director of Horwath HTL in West & Central Africa, has written her latest Sierra Leone, Liberia and Republic of Guinea Hotel Market Report.

Extract from our Sierra Leone, Liberia and Republic of Guinea Hotel Market Report

After long years of armed conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone and half a century of military regimes and several coups d’état in Guinea, the three fledgeling democracies’ return to peace and stability is still relatively recent.
Sierra Leone and Liberia suffered from some of the bloodiest civil wars in Africa until early 2000’s, which resulted in over 200,000 casualties, more than 2.5 million people displaced and the destruction of the countries’ main infrastructures. In Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, became president in 2007 and won a second mandate in 2012. In the neighbouring Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president, was elected in 2005 and then in 2011.
In the Republic of Guinea, the first democratic elections were held in 2010. Alpha Conde became president and was reelected for a second term in 2015.
Although a risk of protests and instability persists, the three republics have made significant progress to build stable, democratic states. In July 2016, the multinational peacekeeping force established in Liberia in 2003 was reduced. If they are now firmly on the path towards further consolidation of democracy, human indicators remain very low. The three nations still rank among the world’s poorest countries with significant challenges in terms of poverty, education and development. Next election are planned for 2017 in Sierra Leone and Liberia and 2020 in Guinea.