Dr. David Moinina Sengeh was born in 1986; he is a Sierra Leonean politician who is currently serving as the Chief Minister of the republic of Sierra Leone after being appointed by President Julius Maada Bio in 2023.
The Chief Minister’s roles and responsibilities include but are not limited to serving as central hub to facilitate the co-ordination and implementation of government policies across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
As directed by the President, the Chief Minister chairs the three cross-cutting sectoral ministries for inter-governmental co-ordination including: Education and Social Development Sector Ministries; Finance and Economic Development Sector Ministries, and the Peace, Security and Justice Sector Ministries.
The Office of the Chief Minister also performs advisory, supervisory and coordinating functions on all cabinet ministers to ensure they deliver in a timely manner. Also, to ensure that they meet their deliverables scheduled in their performance contracts.
In January 2024, at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, Dr Sengeh condemned Hamas’ 7th October 2023 attack on Israel, and stressed that those responsible must be held accountable and called for the release of all hostages.
He also expressed concern over Israeli political actors’ rhetoric regarding the forcible displacement of Palestinians and rejected any attempt to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank either temporarily or permanently.
Dr David Sengeh was the leading representative of government in the tripartite committee that was established and supported by development partners aimed at providing electoral reforms in Sierra Leone.
He was also appointed by President Bio to head the ruling SLPP political-party constitutional review committee geared towards ensuring intra-party reforms.
He previously served as the minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and chief innovation officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation from 2018 to 2023 respectively.
Before he was appointed as Chief Minister, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh was providing strategic and policy leadership for the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).
In February 2023, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh received the Best Minister Award in the World, as part of the ongoing 10th edition of the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The award recognises the exceptional efforts of Government Ministers by demonstrating excellence in the public sector, implementing successful reforms and inspiring Government leaders and service providers to promote innovation within their domain to better serve the needs of their citizens.
Dr. David Moinina Sengeh was among ten other ministers, who were nominated after a global due diligence conducted by researchers, which also included the public opinion through social media, a jury of international experts and key figure representatives of international organizations and the private sector to select the winner.
Shortly after receiving the Award, Dr. Sengeh said that he was excited that the recognition would help to motivate school-going children in Sierra Leone and all other stakeholders in the education sector to do more.
He noted that the commitment of President Dr. Julius Maada Bio allowed him to carry out his mandate with ease, adding that Sierra Leone’s investment in education had been coupled with priority on making sure that the poor, disabled, vulnerable and even those in remote areas were all catered for.
“When everyone is included and when we use technology to provide solutions for our students, everyone benefits and the system gets better. So, as we innovate and solve problems within the education system, we must think about those who are most excluded because when we build systems that work for them, everyone benefits,” he said.
Before his maiden appointment into governance by H.E President Julius Maada Bio in May 2018,Honourable Dr. David Sengeh was a Research Manager at IBM Research Africa (in Kenya and South Africa), leading a healthcare team that designed and implemented AI-enabled systems for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of disease.
He completed his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he developed award-winning inventions and technology for human augmentation designing comfortable prosthetic interfaces.
Chief Minister Dr. David Sengeh received his bachelor’s degree at Harvard University in Engineering Sciences in 2010, where his research focused on aerosolized vaccines for tuberculosis.
Dr. Sengeh is on Forbes under 30 in Technology (2013), a Senior TED Fellow, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, on the Wired Smart List 2013, winner of the Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize, an Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Fellow and most recently, a WEF Young Global Leader.
He has held Fellowship positions at Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and other institutions over the years. He is credited for seeding the development of the innovation ecosystem in Sierra Leone through Global Minimum and the Innovate Salone program, which he co-founded in 2007, and which has supported the innovation and entrepreneurial journeys of thousands of Sierra Leoneans.
He holds several patents and has published academic articles across fields of education, healthcare and augmentation, and artificial intelligence.
Chief Minister Dr. David Sengeh has spoken to audiences globally on topics related to digital governance, education, youth innovation, prosthetics design, fourth industrial revolution and more. He is an afrobeats rapper, fashion designer and regularly plays football.
