Sierra Leone’s Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Ing. Musa Timothy Kabba has been elected as Vice President of the Association of African Diamond Producing Countries (ADPA) at the 8th Extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

The development came about as a result of Sierra Leone’s strict compliance to the Kimberley Process Certification scheme for its diamonds and the general progressive reforms in its mining sector.

Prior to his appointment as Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Ing. Musa Timothy Kabba was the Director-General of the Petroleum Directorate. He is an oil and gas engineer. Before joining the Petroleum Directorate, he was the project management consultant for Total E & P C LTD.

He also worked as a Drilling Engineer and a Reservoir Engineer at the LUKOIL Overseas Offshore Project. As Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Ing. Kabba is responsible for the implementation of the Mines and Minerals Act 2009 working in close partnership with the National Minerals Agency.

And according to Part 3 of the Mines and Minerals Act the minister oversees all the administration of the Act.

The African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) is an intergovernmental organisation that seeks to strengthen the level of influence African diamond-producing countries have on the world diamond market.

ADPA implements policies, strategies and laws that assist the generation of diamond profits from foreign diamond mining companies to its Member States.

The organisation was formed on 4th November 2006 as a continental branch of the African Diamond Council, Africa’s supreme diamond governing body.

The initiative to establish the ADPA was initially adopted and backed by Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos.

Angola is the interim executive secretariat as well as home to the organisation’s headquarters.

Both the ADC and ADPA organisation’s executive secretariat and headquarters are in the Republic of Angola.