By Web Admin 
Ibrahim Satti Kamara, director of Communications and Community Affairs at the National Minerals Agency (NMA), demonstrated on Friday the long-awaited Community Development Management Information System (CoDMIS), an online portal designed to make payments to local communities and project data openly accessible.
“A lot of questions were asked around how we can track the management of the community development funds,” Kamara told delegates at the official launch during Sierra Leone Mining Week at the Freetown International Conference Centre. “What we have done at the National Minerals Agency, under the guidance of the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, is to develop an online portal where people can access information. This is not just for government officials — anybody, anywhere can at any time access information on the CDA, the CDF and all other monies going back to communities.”
Kamara walked through the platform, showing how users can drill down from national aggregates to payments by company, by district and by chiefdom. “By the click of a button you can know how much has been paid, how much has been utilised, for what purpose and what remains within the account,” he said, inviting attendees to test the system themselves.
Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources Julius Daniel Mattai, who formally launched the platform, framed the digital move as an antidote to mistrust and local conflict over resource flows. “When you’re not transparent, whispers and gossip start,” he said. “Suspicion creates conflict. We have had a lot of conflict over funds. Going digital and going public is part of laying that to rest.”
Mattai emphasised that raw data must be converted into meaningful information and then into knowledge that local leaders and citizens can use. “Data without context is noise,” he said. “It is only when you put that data into context that it becomes information, and when you put information into context it becomes knowledge. Today we are moving from paperwork to knowledge.”
He also warned that the platform will only serve its purpose if data are accurate and regularly updated. “No system serves a purpose if it is not updated with current information. The owners also fall on those who provide the data to make sure information is factual, up to date and accurate,” he said.
Mattai noted the system was developed in-house by the NMA’s Directorate of Technology Information Management and promised further enhancements, including a geographic information system (GIS) module that will overlay payments and project data with administrative boundaries. That functionality, he said, will allow users to visualise the spatial footprint of mining activity down to sections within chiefdoms and to run trend analyses across years.
“We’ve ensured historical data sets are included so you can do trend analysis — for example, what this chiefdom has received over the past 10 years,” the minister added. He invited attendees to visit the NMA exhibition stand for demonstrations and to learn the system’s capabilities and limits.
The platform aims to cover multiple revenue streams tied to mining operations, including company surface payments and allocations from the Diamond Area Community Development Fund and other community development funds. During Kamara’s demonstration the interface highlighted top-receiving chiefdoms and allowed users to filter by year, district, chiefdom and revenue type.
Officials said public access will also empower diaspora communities and other external stakeholders to verify payments and development activity in their home areas. “Indigenes, especially those in the diaspora, can now see what has been paid and how funds are used,” Mattai said.
Attendees were urged to engage with the portal and to hold local leaders and implementing companies accountable using the information it provides. The platform’s launch forms part of wider efforts to strengthen transparency in the mining sector and to reduce tensions around resource distribution at the community level.
The CoDMIS demonstration and launch took place amid the Sierra Leone Mining Week 2026 conference at the Freetown International Conference Centre.