Minister Fonseca Juggles Foreign Affairs and Education Portfolios

It’s been eighteen days since Minister Francis Fonseca assumed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Fonseca assumed the post from former Minister Eamon Courtney after he returned to his private practice of law. Fonseca now holds the office along with his mandate as Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Technology. With the various responsibilities under both ministries, Fonseca was asked how he is managing the workload. 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade: “I’m very happy that we have such a good team at the Ministry Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. You know that’s what makes me feel very comfortable and confident that we can get the work done. It’s a lot of work but Minister Courtenay I want to give him credit, Minister Courtenay over the past three years has done a lot of good work. He has laid a very strong foundation for the ministry and you know my job is to build on that foundation. They have an excellent team led there by CEO Mai. We have good foreign service officers, we have good heads of missions across the globe. We have an excellent team at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, good trade economists. So you know based on our discussions so far and our meetings so far I’m very very hopeful and very energized really energized and enthusiastic about the challenge that lies ahead. It’s a great challenge balancing that with my other obligations as Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology but you know as I said we have good teams. I am very very fortunate that I have good teams at both ministries. Of course I have an excellent team at the Ministry of Education headed by CEO Mehia and of course I have the support of my Minister of State Honorable Dr. Louis Zabaneh. So you know the initial work program looks very good and as I said I’m very excited about the work that lies ahead.”

The senior politician is also the Area representative of the Freetown Division.