Maada Bio marks one year in governance as President of Sierra Leone

“We have to make Africa the new promised land, by prioritising holistic Human Capital Development” President Bio

From inheriting an economy on the brink of collapse with double digit inflation, low domestic revenue mobilisation, high domestic debt burden, unsustainable external debt, huge arrears to contractors and state of austerity, the SLPP-led Government has put the economy on the road to recovery with the following achievements:

Increased Domestic Revenue Mobilisation

Domestic revenues collected during 2018 increased to Le 4.35 trillion or 14.0 percent of GDP compared to Le 3.34 trillion or 12.6 percent of GDP in 2017, an increase of about Le 1.0 trillion. From April 2018 to March 2019 the Government collected a total of Le 5,086,696.6 trillion of domestic revenues, a monthly average of Le339,113.1 billion, far exceeding the monthly collection of Le 192,422.5 billion for 2016 to March 2017. The increase in domestic revenue mobilisation was as a result of the implementation of the key revenue enhancing measures issued under Executive Order 1: Streamlining of duty and tax waivers; implementation of the Treasury Single Account; Converting the NRA Transit Accounts into sub-Treasury Account out of which payments are swept and transferred into the Consolidated Revenue Account on a daily basis; liberalisation of fuel prices and streamlining the payment of excise duties; and stronger enforcement of tax compliance.

Improved Expenditure Management and Control

In a bid to reduce wasteful and unproductive expenditures with a view to ensure fiscal sustainability, Government issued Executive Order 2 detailing a number of expenditure management and control measures which have yielded the following results in one year: Payroll Cleaning Exercise by Ministry of Finance is saving the Government about Le 5.0 billion monthly and this has provided fiscal space to recruit 1,600 new teachers; Review of Policy on Overseas Travel has been able to achieve savings of Le 11 billion, with Le 760 million on foreign travel alone. Additional measures have also been taken in the last one year such as freeze on new recruitment, review of procurement procedure, capacity building for internal audit in MDAs etc. As a result of Government’s efforts in strengthening fiscal discipline and transparency in the management of public resources, expenditures declined to an average of Le 230.8 billion during April to December 2018 from Le 535.2 billion per month for the same period in 2017.

Re-launch of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The ECF programme of the IMF derailed under the previous administration mainly due to weak domestic revenue collection resulting from the non-implementation of structural measures agreed with the Fund. Following the re-engagement of the IMF by the Government the Macro-Fiscal Division provided technical assistance in coordinating the successful implementation of the measures identified as pre-conditions for the negotiation of a new programme. A new ECF programme for SDR124.44 million (about US$172.1 million) was approved for Sierra Leone. $21 million was immediately disbursed.

Mobilisation of Budget Support

Following the derailment of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), most development partners withheld budget support. These developments culminated into a sharp increase in domestic debt and related high debt service payments, as well as the build-up of huge arrears owed to suppliers of goods, services and works. In 2018, the Ministry of Finance engaged Development Partners to initiate discussion on not only re-activation of budget support for Sierra Leone, but also the enhancement of the budget support that was not disbursed by Development Partners in 2017. This led to a disbursement of 23.5 million euros budget support from the European Union in December 2018; World Bank approval of $40 million in March 2019 and $18 million from the African Development Bank in Quarter One of 2019.

Improved Public Debt Management

In one year, Sierra Leone has completed the assessment of external debt outlook using the new IMF and World Bank Low Income Country – Debt Sustainability Framework (LIC-DSF) template. Sierra Leone is the first country in the Anglophone West African Region to apply the template. Also, as a result of prudent external debt negotiations, decision making and management in the last one year, the following achievements have been made: Government significantly reduced domestic borrowing for financing the budget to Le564.71 billion in 2018 from Le1.02 trillion in 2017 (decline by 44.4%); two loan agreements totalling US$300 million were cancelled by Government due to the risks they pose to debt sustainability and timely payments of both domestic and external debt service without accruing arrears.

Increased disbursement to Local Councils

In one year, disbursement to local councils for devolved functions more than tripled to Le106 billion compared to Le30.9 billion disbursed in FY 2017. Of this amount, about Le31.1 billion was disbursed to councils in support of the national monthly cleaning exercise. The national monthly cleaning exercise has significantly contributed to the reduced incidence of flooding in major cities and towns nationwide as well as improved waste management across the country.

Restored Economic Credibility

As a result of improved management of the economy, coordination and fiduciary management of donor funded projects by the Ministry of Finance, the Government of Sierra Leone was able to sign several beneficial projects in 2018 and 2019 on behalf of its citizens. The following projects have been signed: Rural Finance and Community Improvement Project (additional financing):* This $9 million part loan and part grant funded by IFAD will improve access to rural financial services to develop the agricultural sector.

The Sierra Leone agro processing competitiveness project: This project with an estimated total cost of $10 million provided the World Bank on a loan basis will improve the business environment in the agri-business sector and increase the productivity of targeted agro-processing firms in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone Skills development project: This project with an estimated total project cost of $20 million is a loan provided by the international development association and World Bank. As part of this project, capacity building and systems strengthening would be provided for selected training institutions so that they can improve on the quality of their training programs and introduce new short courses for out-of-school unemployed youth with specific focus on girl child. It is expected to build the foundation for a demand led skills development system.

Financial inclusion project: This project estimated at $12 million is funded by the international development association and World Bank. On successful implementation, it will increase the interoperability of digital payments and increase access to financial services nationwide.

Second Productivity and Transparency Support Grant (PTSG II): This $40m budget support operation is the second in a programmatic series of three operations to support the implementation of the Government’s priorities articulated in the National Development Plan. It covers five policy areas: agriculture (including fisheries and land), energy and extractives, education, public financial management (Treasure Single Account and e-procurement), and asset disclosure. The reforms are expected to have positive social and poverty reduction impact.

©Office of the Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman

Sierra Leone bans industrial fishing for a month to protect fish stock

Following a recent televised BBC documentary which shows China’s fishing fleet taking advantage of weak and porous monitoring systems in Sierra Leone, the government of Sierra Leone has this week passed a moratorium on all industrial fishing along its waters.

The BBC documentary – ‘Is China’s fishing fleet taking all of West Africa’s fish’, shows the deplorable extent to which Chinese fishing trawlers are exploiting Sierra Leone’s inability to police its waters. As local fishermen struggle to make a living out of their meagre daily catch, there are serious concerns that the country’s fish stock may be in serious decline.

Chinese fishing trawlers are using illegal methods such as double trawling to cast their news wider, which then rakes and gulps everything from the sea. Sierra Leone has a potential to earn more than $50 million annually from fishing. But the government gets less than $18 million, largely because of illegal fishing and inability to police the country’s seas.

With the risk of facing dwindling fish stocks and the livelihood of millions of people destroyed, the country’s vice president told the fishing community in Freetown yesterday, that all industrial fishing has been banned for a month with immediate effect.

Vice president Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh was speaking at the launch of the Ministry of Fishery and Marine Resources ‘Closed Season’ initiative in Freetown. The aim of the initiative is to monitor Sierra Leone’s seas for a period of thirty days beginning from the 1st to 30th April, 2019.

Addressing fishermen, Dr. Jalloh cautioned artisan fishermen not to export fish to Guinea during the Closed Season, describing any attempts by fishermen to export fish outside Sierra Leone as an act of sabotage. Similarly, he cautioned market women not to take advantage of the closed season by increasing the prices of fish for the public under the pretext of insufficient fish in the market. Anyone caught in such acts will be dealt with accordingly, he said.

Vice President Jalloh emphasised “we will not leave any stone un-turned, and we are going to provide additional security personnel at outpost to effect the thirty days period.” The Vice President said that the New Direction Government is diversifying the economy, and has identified the fishery sector as one key area to generate revenue for the support of Government social programmes such as health, water and infrastructure.

Proper management of the fishery sector he said, will lead to increase revenue mobilisation. The Fishery Ministry, the vice president said, has three main objectives: To ensure fish is available and affordable for the public especially for children to eat, mobilise revenue for Government, and to put measures in place for the management of fishing. Dr. Jalloh implored the Industrial fishing companies, artisan fishermen and market women to ensure the thirty days moratorium is implemented, as it is a policy of the New Direction government.

He discussed government’s plans to provide solar panels to most of the fishing communities in the country, which he said is to make sure that artisan fishermen transact business in a transparent environment especially after seven O’clock in the evening.

Minister of Fishery and Marine Resources – Mrs. Emma Kowa-Jalloh, told the fishermen that one of the main reasons for the thirty days closed season is to make sure fish grow within the one-month period. She spoke about the formation of Monitoring Task Force including the media – to monitor the closure, and expressed optimism of achieving 90-95% success. The closure the Fishery Minister said is an indication of the New Direction’s concern for the welfare of Sierra Leoneans by making sure that only local Sierra Leonean artisan fishermen are allowed to fish in the sea for one month.

She said that banning trawlers from fishing for the one month is a great loss of revenue to the Government, but stressed that the welfare and growth of Sierra Leoneans is a priority of the New Direction Government. And she encouraged the public to report any illegal fishing during this period.

Neneh Lebbie – MP for Bo City, who is also the Parliamentary Committee Chairperson on Fishery called on the public not to politicise the one month period by misinforming the public that there is insufficient fish in the market during the 30 days moratorium. She also appealed to market women not to hoard the fish for sale later at increased prices.

Bassem Jamil Mohamed of Sierra Fishing Company, who spoke on behalf of Industrial Fishing Association, commended the Government of Sierra Leone for keeping the fishing sector in order. He said that the government’s plans to prevent the decline of fish stock in Sierra Leone should be welcomed. But he called on the vice president to make sure that fish is available on the market during the one-month moratorium.

FIRST LADY AS COMMISSIONER GENERAL IS DETERMINED TO REBRAND SIERRA LEONE

H. E. Fatima Maada Bio, the First Lady of Sierra Leone, on a working visit to UAE as the Commissioner General of EXPO 2020, had a detailed session with Her Excellency Reem Ebrahim Al-Hashimi, Minister of State for Development cooperation and Director General of EXPO 2020 – She earned a BA in International Relations and French from Tufts University. In 2002 she received a Master’s degree from Harvard University.

EXPO is a global destination for millions of people to share ideas, showcase innovation, encourage collaboration and celebrate human ingenuity. They are organised every five years and last for six months. Authorities in Dubai will invest $8.1bn in new infrastructure to host the most vibrant EXPO in history next year.

First Lady Bio was appreciative of the great assistance and opportunity presented to Sierra Leone. They discussed the concept for building the Sierra Leone pavilion, the logistics , and how to rebrand Sierra Leone to create a quantum leap in the developmental process.

It was a meeting of creative minds as both teams stated clearly what was required to make EXPO mutually beneficial to all parties involved.

Positively rebranding Sierra Leone requires pragmatic programmes.The EXPO is a great resource, it will be fully optimised for maximum impact on our economy. They then went on to discuss strengthening diplomatic ties. The First Lady’s team also had a working meeting with the EXPO 2020 team to discuss and fine tune issues raised.

Sierra Leone will be the surprise country at EXPO 2020. This is because , the First Lady is working with the best creative commercial minds.