Yvonne Denise Aki-Sawyerr, OBE (; born 7 January 1968) is a Sierra Leonean politician and finance professional, who is serving as the current mayor of

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

, Sierra Leone's capital and largest city; she assumed office on 11 May 2018. Prior to becoming head of the

Freetown City Council Freetown City Council is the municipal government of the city of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. It was established in 1893 and is one of the oldest municipal governments in Africa. The Freetown City Hall, located on Wallace-Johnson Stree ...

, Aki-Sawyer had worked extensively in the UK financial and professional services industry. She had also taken either pioneering or crucial roles in various charity and public service projects in the UK and Sierra Leone, including participation in the fight against Ebola in 2014 and the subsequent recovery initiatives.

Early life and education

Yvonne Denise Aki-Sawyerr (née Morgan) was born on 7 January 1968 in Freetown, in the British Dominion of Sierra Leone (present day Sierra Leone). She is a member of Sierra Leone's Creole ethnic group. She attended St. Joseph's Secondary School in Freetown where she was head girl and Loreto House Captain. Aki-Sawyerr graduated with honours from

Fourah Bay College Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-l ...

in 1988 where she earned a bachelor's degree in Economics. At university, she was active with AIESEC (the International Association of Students in Economics and Management) and she became the first African on AIESEC's Brussels-based International Exchange Committee in 1988. She earned a master's degree in International Relations and Politics of the World Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1993, she received her certification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Career

Private sector

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is a Chartered Accountant, and has a private sector experience of over 25 years in roles such as providing strategic planning, project management, risk management, corporate governance and regulatory consulting services to high profile clients in the UK financial services industry.Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

International Growth Centre The International Growth Centre (IGC) is an economic research centre based at the London School of Economics, operated in partnership with University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government. The centre was launched in December 2008 and is fund ...

. Retrieved 9 November 2021. She began working for professional services firm

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

in 1990. She became the Investment Director of IDEA (Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award) in 2009, in which she was tasked for raising international finance to fund projects, and the management of local stakeholder groups.

Charity and other endeavours

In 1999, Aki-Sawyerr co-founded the charity Sierra Leone War Trust (SLWT), which aimed to promote humanitarian, social and welfare conditions of children and youth in Sierra Leone. During the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014, she led a campaign in the UK with the aim of increasing international awareness about the outbreak. She took a sabbatical leave from IDEA and joined Sierra Leone's National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), and became the Director of Planning. She relocated to Sierra Leone and recruited volunteers to work in the Ebola Treatment Centres.

Politics and public service

Before vying for the top position at

, Aki-Sawyerr worked as a key member of the President's Recovery Priorities (PRP), serving as delivery Team Lead, from January 2016 to October 2017. PRP was the second phase of a multi-stakeholder programme aimed at driving sustainable socio-economic transformation in Sierra Leone after the Ebola crisis. She played a crucial role in the design and implementation of "Operation Clean Freetown" which was part of the PRP programme that focused on introducing a sustainable system of household waste collection in the city of Freetown. Aki-Sawyerr has been the Mayor of Freetown since taking office on 11 May 2018 after winning a total of 309,000 votes representing 59.92% of the votes cast in the mayoral election. She's a member of the All People's Congress (APC) political party - one of the two political parties, alongside the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), that have dominated Sierra Leone politics since independence from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

University of Central Arkansas
41. Sierra Leone (1961-Present)Archived
Retrieved 22 October 2021.

Personal life

Aki-Sawyerr is married and has two children.

Awards and honours

Aki-Sawyerr was recognized for her work during Sierra Leone's Ebola crisis with an Ebola Gold Medal by then president of Sierra Leone

Ernest Bai Koroma Ernest Bai Koroma (born 2 October 1953) is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018. Born and raised in Makeni in northern Sierra Leone, Koroma spent more than 24 ...

in December 2015. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

in January 2016. Aki-Sawyerr was on the list of the BBC's

100 Women (BBC) ''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's wome ...

announced on 23 November 2020. In February 2021,

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

named her as one of Time's "100 Next" honorees.Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (17 February 2021
Honored to be featured in the 2021 #TIME100NEXT list

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. Retrieved 9 November 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aki-Sawyerr, Yvonne Living people Sierra Leone Creole people All People's Congress politicians Sierra Leone women's rights activists Mayors of Freetown 1968 births BBC 100 Women Women mayors of places in Sierra Leone 21st-century Sierra Leonean women politicians 21st-century Sierra Leonean politicians Sierra Leonean economists Sierra Leoneans of Jamaican Maroon descent