Socfin has obtained its Environmental License since the establishment of the Company from the EPA who carries out rigorous annual audits and also carries out monitoring of quarterly audits. Socfin pays more than 600 million Le annually to the EPA for this license as per the determinations of the EPA processes. The EPA came to site in January 2020 and carried out an extensive annual audit of Socfin and it was found that Socfin was in full compliance. The EPA is also aware that Socfin is ISO (International Standards Organization) certified in ISO 14001 in Environmental Management. Socfin also had in March 2020 an external mock audit by RSPO whereby no issues of environmental pollution or contamination were registered or found.
Socfin finds this article totally misleading and refutes the contents of such. Again it is continued allegations against Socfin by elements opposed to large scale agricultural investments in Sierra Leone.
Socfin is the largest palm oil producer in Sierra Leone producing 26 million liters of palm oil (26,000 tons) in 2019 and will exceed 30 million liters in 2020. Socfin supplies Palm oil to the local refinery Kissy Industries who produce cooking oil, soap and soon margarine for the nation. Sierra Leone having a large producer of palm oil has created the opportunity for refineries to open and produce cooking oil for the country saving tens of millions of precious foreign currency needed to buy fuel and other imported commodities over imported cooking oil, soap and margarine.
The people who make these allegations about Socfin are desperate and have nothing to offer Sierra Leone other than so called protection of the environment and protection of its people. This protection is provided by Socfin who provides jobs, pays taxes and provides a precious product for the nation particularly in this difficult time of COVID 19 unlike these critics who wrote the article.
This article is distasteful when the country and world is grabbling with COVID 19, what can they do for the nation to assist in this, instead spend their limited resources on newspaper articles which have no basis. It is sad when intentions of these people can step so low and who should be thinking of assisting the people of Sierra Leone to combat COVID 19. Currently Socfin is preparing together with Kissy Industries 20,000 liters of palm oil and 50,000 bars of soap to be donated to the Government of Sierra Leone towards the combat of COVID 19. Socfin challenges these people of this article to contribute in kind or money this amount.