By: Mohamed M. Sesay
Align with its indelible trust for President Bio’s New Direction Government in terms of promoting transparency and accountability in Public Financial Management, the World Bank Group Board of Executive Directors, have unanimously and expeditiously approved the Second Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Development Policy Financing (DPF) in the tune of $100 million grant for Sierra Leone.
The $100 Million grant is geared towards supporting President Bio’s Government in order to make more gains in natural resource governance, enhance inclusiveness, and strengthen accountability and transparency in public finance. The grant which is the second in a series of three operations is built on a programmatic reform plan in order to support sustainable, robust, and inclusive growth in the country.
“Sierra Leone’s capabilities to eradicate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity rest on sustained macroeconomic stability, robust growth, and a solid enabling environment for leveraging its abundant natural resources. This financing will help address immediate fiscal challenges, while improving overall governance to build resilience and enhance the delivery of services to the people of Sierra Leone,” the press release states.
It continues that Sustainable and inclusive growth has been constrained by the country’s exposure to multi-dimensional exogenous shocks (economic, epidemic, and climactic), pervasive governance weaknesses, and limited fiscal space and fiscal risks, which inhibit the ability to promote pro-poor growth through public investment.
The World Bank Press Statement also acknowledges that Sierra Leone’s economy has been affected by back-to-back crises, which have aggravated inflationary and fiscal pressures, and increased the risks to debt sustainability. It assures that the reforms supported by this operation would help address several critical developmental challenges while also helping to meet increased financing needs of the Government.
The Press Statement intimates that the DPF is aligned with President Bio’s Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP 2019-2023). It reaffirms that Mining reforms supported by the operation will help improve revenue collection, while reforms in auditing and state-owned enterprises’ governance will help control expenditures, easing fiscal pressures and creating space for growth-promoting investment.
The press statement equally reveals that the program builds on the strong foundation established by the first operation in this series, which initiated landmark legislative reforms, including promoting decentralized and inclusive land management, strengthening governance and licensing practices in the mining sector, and promoting gender inclusivity in education and employment.