Ernest Bai Koroma

Who is Ernest Bai Koroma?

Ernest Bai Koroma is the current President of Sierra Leone and the fourth since 2007.

An insurance executive by profession, Koroma spent more than 24 years working in the private insurance industry before entering politics in 2002. From 1988 to 2002, he was the managing director of the Reliance Insurance Trust Corporation.

He is a 1976 graduate from Fourah Bay College, the oldest university in West Africa. Koroma is a native of Makeni, Bombali District in the North of Sierra Leone; and a member of the Temne ethnic group.

He was elected as leader of the All People's Congress, then Sierra Leone's main opposition party, on 24 March 2002, after defeating then incumbent APC leader Edward Turay, his main opponent. Koroma stood as the APC candidate in the 2002 Sierra Leone presidential election but was defeated by incumbent Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who won 70.3% of the vote, to Koroma's 22.35%. Koroma conceded defeat.

Koroma was later elected to parliament representing his home District of Bombali from 2002 to 2007. In 2005, he was elected the minority leader of Parliament and remained in that position until his election to the Presidency in 2007.