April 9, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
The Minister of Finance fondly referred to as the “Bread and Butter Minister” Jacob Jusu Saffa has yesterday informed Journalists that due to the effective political leadership of President Bio, and the vigorous management of the country’s economy, government has been able to mobilize an unprecedented sum of nine hundred million dollars grants from 2018-2021 for different project activities.
Disclosing this at a presser held at the Ministry of Information and Communication’s Conference Hall, Minister Saffa intimated that out of the nine hundred million dollars mobilized for donors, 67% were grants which means it was given on a pro bono basis to the government of Sierra Leone. He added that donor partners will only send their monies to a countries that have performing government and effective management of the economy which he said are evident in the Bio administration.
Jacob Jusu Saffa further stated that in October 2017, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank withdrew their support out of the country due to bad management of the economy.
He said the New Direction Government is on record that within eight months, they were able to restore their relationship with the IMF and the World Bank and by extension; they have even improved relationship with all donor partners.
He argued that that is also because of their political leadership in terms of efficient management of the economy under the New Direction Government that has ensured the securing of one of the highest grant from the World Bank sometimes last year at the tune of one hundred million dollars.
On revenue collection, Minister Saffa also informed that they were able to collect daily revenue up to 14.6% which is the minimum threshold most countries are always yearning for. At the beginning of quarter one in 2020, Minister Saffa said the covid-19 pandemic imposed a compelling challenge to the world economy. He however said that Due to the smartness of President Bio’s Government, they did not wait but rather launched an instantaneous economic recovery plan by projecting revenue loss about one hundred million dollars. He emphasized that due to the robust covid-19 economy recovery plan, government was able to pay salaries to teachers, hired nurses and other government workers during the very height of the covid-19b pandemic.
Jacob Saffa continued that, the daily revenue collection has more than doubled for several months from less than ten billion during the previous administration, to now twenty billion leones under the leadership of President Bio in just a day.
As part of the monthly collection, he said government is now collecting four hundred and forty billion leones on average per month in twenty-two working days which is far more than sufficient to take care of wages and salaries. He also said the country’s domestic revenue is sufficient for the people of Sierra Leone under president Bio’s leadership to take care of the payment of salaries. Due to the huge debt that were accumulated during past administration, the Finance Minister lamented that the country is paying about hundred billion leones which is about ten million dollars on debt service alone ranging from domestic debt and external debts.
He responded to cries of people that the country is poor by saying that, Sierra Leone has been poor for so long a time and the country will continue to be poor for sometimes to come adding that, the last integrated survey indicates that nearly three out of every five sierra Leoneans are poor which stands at 56.8% which literarily mean three out of five is poor and that the status quo will not just change overnight especially in a country which economic has been battered and shattered for over eleven years.
“If the development literature says that for a nation to reduce poverty by ten percentage point, one has to sustain the economic growth of nearly ten percent (10%) by year after year for several years to come which also depends on the distribution mechanism. So to say that we are only poor now is a malicious hoax because we have always been poor. We have muds houses in this country, we have terrible roads, and we have “pan body houses” and the like in this country. “bra u borbor dae ya” has also been around. So what we are doing as a government is to reduce that poverty and that is the bread and butter. But any every public policy has a bread and butter implication because any public policy either has an income effect or savings effect”, he said.
Minister Saffa also intimated that the revenue situation in the country is speedily improving. He said prior to now during the revenue collection was less than ten billion leones before 2018. He sighted an example that if one collects ten billion in twenty working days which will about two hundred billion in a month that will not even cover average government wage bill which is about two hundred and fifty billion leones. He therefore said the low revenue generation during the previous government resulted to bank borrowing at ventral bank and external debt accumulation because they could not raise enough revenue to pay salaries.
“It also means that, if you were collecting two hundred and twenty billion and you needed two hundred and need two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty billion Leones to pay salaries, you obviously need to borrow monies from the central bank and external sources just to pay salaries. The good news under the new direction government is that, we don borrow monies to pay salaries. I am not saying we don’t borrow, but we don’t borrow to pay salaries because our domestic revenue generation is sufficient enough to pay salaries of government workers. As a smart government through the leadership of president Bio, we have been able to mobilize external grants. The total external grants we have mobilized as a government between 2018 to 2021, we have mobilized nine hundred million dollars for different project activities. The secret behind the mobilization of that colossal external grant is the political leadership and the effective management of the country’s economy. Because if donor partners don’t trust you, they don’t give you money”, he concluded.