April 12, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
During the country’s first Presidential Town Hall in reviewing his three years presidency, His Excellency the president Julius Maada has on Friday further affirmed confidence in his Finance Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa as performing minister contributing to the stabilization of the country’s economy that had been in shambles.
Responding to questions posed by the moderator Umaru Fofana, President Julius Bio acknowledged his government has not fixed the economy to the expectation of the people. He however stated that the government has started the process and he is quite satisfied with the current state of the country’s economy compared to the dismal baseline he assumed.
He stressed that no one can smoothly run a country with a battered and shattered economy, and his government knew that they were beset with a very difficult economic situation for which they were also equally prepared.
“ we have not fixed the economy to the extent that we want it but we have started the process and I am well satisfied with the level we have reached today. As you rightly stated, you cannot run a country or even an organization with a battered economy. We had planned for victory and so when we got the victory, I selected J.J Saffa to lead my team for economic recovery and he has done a commendable job and that is why they are still there if not, they will not be there”, said Bio.
President Bio further stated that the country has a lot of resources but they have not been managed well and therefore, the country has been dependent on the support from donor partners to a very large extent. He said that the country needs the donor partners describing them as an allied in the country’s fight against poverty, in the fight for development and the rest of developmental activities.
He however mentioned that those development and donor partners that left the country before his government came into office due to the poor economic management by the previous leadership resulted to high inflation, huge domestic and external debts.
President Bio reiterated that one of the thing his government did was to win the confidence of the development and donor partners He said they engaged the development partners and made a commitment to them in certain reform areas that impressed the development partners in started doing business with them.
He specifically alluded to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that at time accepted a three years economic reform for Sierra Leone.
President Bio reaffirmed the importance of the IMF, arguing that that if a country has a good record with the IMF it will entice other donor and development partners to come onboard.
President Bio added that even in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, his government was able to mobilized over one hundred million United States Dollars which he described as a sign of confidence in his government capacity to efficiently lead the country economically.
President Bio also acknowledged that the country definitely has challenges especially in terms of the devaluation of the Leones where there has been low export, but reassured that his government is poised through the Bank of Sierra Leone to address the devalue plummeting of the Leones against the US Dollar.
He intimated that when his government took over two mining companies had closed operation which equally imposed an economic challenge to his government.. He added that, revenue generation was a commitment his government made and that due to his first executive order, his government was able to get enough money to even start a national programme which included but not limited to the Free Quality Education describing that the Free Quality Education is now the most ambitious programmes the country had had after independence.