February 26, 2021
A. Baron Ansu reports…
In the midst of unsubstantiated and skewed analysis attempting to take away the shine from the good governance strides of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, the United Nations Common Country Analysis 2020 Update provides objective details in facts and figures that vindicate a performing Bio administration.
The report makes the generalized preamble about the state of affairs of Sierra Leone that: Progress has been reflected in a number of policy and legal reforms aimed at enhancing institutional capacity for service delivery in sectors relating to economic growth, justice, security, human rights, peace, and democratic governance.
Specific data is provided in gains recorded in the much debated macro-economic performance that gives the Bio administration comparative edge: During the civil war (1991-2001), the GDP contracted by 3.5 per cent on average per annum but increased at average rate of 3.4 per cent in the post-civil war (2002-2019). This is the longest period of sustained growth in Sierra Leone.
Keen observers can but look back at the foregoing line to settle the controversy between this government and the past as to which one actually evinces superiority in macro-economic performance. The UN report clarifies: it is the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, not the All Peoples Congress.
The report provides more statistical details to defeat propaganda and bias opinions about the comparative economic reality between the past and present government.
“The macroeconomic landscape remains challenging despite the implementation of intrepid policy measures since 2018. Recent fiscal consolidation efforts, which have focused on boosting revenue mobilization and prioritization of expenditures have helped narrow the overall deficit from 8.8 per cent of GDP in 2017 to 2.9 per cent of GDP in 2019.”
This details support the argument of the government as enunciated by the Finance Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa that “we inherited a weak economic baseline that we have been overhauling since 2018.”
And the referenced UN report goes to the heart of the matter, the issue of inflation that has been loosely derided in tongues that provide no basis to distort reality on the ground.
“Inflationary pressure moderated to 13.9 per cent in 2019 from 18.2 per cent in 2017, reflecting tight monetary policy stance.”
A testament to fiscal policy reforms that was introduced by the Bio government is worthy of appreciation. One can but see who spoiled and who is fixing between erstwhile President Ernest Bai Koroma and current President Julius Maada Bio between the period 2017 and 2019. The latter is fixing the spoils of the past government as attested by the details of the UN report.
One startling revelation contained in this report is the fact that long before the outbreak of COVID 19, the past government policy deficit had weakened private sector investment resource mobilization stream.
“External sector performance was severely weakened by the collapse of iron ore exports in 2016 coupled with weaknesses in mining sector governance.”
This fact clearly displaces figures that opposition flagbearer contenders Samura Kamara and Richard Konteh had been floating around to make believe that outperformed the Bio administration in economic governance to prop up‘d gron dry’ fallacy.
And if the foregoing figures are not convincing enough, we can bring out more results in specifics as in measuring deficit that puts the current administration in superior ranking on that token.
“The current account deficits widened to 21.1 per cent of GDP in 2017 and declined gradually to 13.8 per cent of GDP in 2019, driven mainly by the recovery of exports.”
More on this report in subsequent editions…
