February 15, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio has on Friday 12th February provided what could be seen as a stimulus package of Le 100 Billion for women and youth across the country. The Micro credit scheme is dubbed MUNAFA, a local dialectal phrase that states “we are better off now…”
The terms of disbursing the money has been defined at the grand launch of the scheme in Tonkolili. It has been stated that an individual can be eligible to get Five million Leones and ten million per group.
In his statement, His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio said he chose Tonkolili district to launch the National MUNAFA Micro Credit Support Projects because Tonkolili is one of the biggest districts and it is situated at the heart of the country.
He added that the launch of the National MUNAFA Micro Credit program will target women and the youth, noting that women and youth are the economic engine of any nation.
President Bio said he promised the nation of an inclusive development, citing the Free Quality Education as an investment in the human capital development of the nation’s children.
“Right now as I speak, I am paying school fees for all the school going pupils. My government is paying their fees. Development will never be possible without the youth and women of this country. Therefore if we want to be developed, we need to think of the women in particular, because the women take care of our homes. I am not saying that men are not responsible, we are responsible as well, “President Bio said.
President Bio continued that he like the women because they take care of the kids and their husbands. He further stated that the human capital development matters more than anything in his government, acknowledging that his government might construct roads, build all the offices in the world, and do everything but the priority target should be on Human Capital Development.
He added that because politicians have been used to making false promises, backwardness of the country since independence had become the order of the day. He said: “they have been talking without doing; we will talk and do…”
President Bio also referenced the deliverables of his New Direction Manifesto, stating that all what he promised the people of this country is in black and white. He therefore asked citizens to open the new Direction Manifestoes comes 2023 and challenge him on anything he did not fulfill in the Manifesto.
He said his government has performed more during this period of COVID 19 than prior to the outbreak. He however lamented the fact that COVID-19 has tremendously affected the world’s economy, killed millions of people, devastated the health systems, but said with the lessons learnt during the Ebola period, prepared Sierra Leone as one of the best countries in terms of handling the pandemic.
The Minister of Finance Jacob Jusu Saffa referred to the MUNAFA Micro credit funds as a bread and butter project. He reaffirmed that when President Bio assumed power in 2018, he said the first bread and butter project they brought as a government was the Free Quality Education project.
He added that the school fees have now saved a lot of resources for the purchase of bread and butter for the family. He noted also that they brought another bread and butter project in the provision of the school bus services for pupils and that has also saved cost for the parents.
Finance Minister Saffa said: “The school fees that you were supposed to pay but you are not paying anymore, you will put that money into your pockets to buy bread and butter. The people said it is not enough then we brought another bread and butter which is the reduction of the high transportation fares and also provided school bus service. The exams fees you were used to pay for NPSE, BECE or WASSCE, which government is now paying, that money also is indirect bread and butter”.
Jacob Jusu Saffa continued with the glad tidings for the people of Magburuka, by also citing an indirect bread and butter issue through the adjustment of salaries of Teachers, Nurses, the payments of paramount chiefs, Chairmen of councils, the increment of allowances of Councilors, etc.
He added that based on popular demands for more bread and butter issue, he said he told President Bio that the only thing that would appease the people is money, because people want money especially Micro Credit support. Minister Saffa disclosed that after his discussion with President Bio, he later consented to it, this has led to the launch of the one hundred billion Leones National MUNAFA Micro Project across the nation.
He continued that despite the funds that has been coming in to support farmers wherein they disbursed small monies to help boost farming activities of farmers; the MUNAFA Micro Credit Fund is different from all of those previous projects.
Also part of the glad tidings expressed to the people, the Minister also confirmed that the MUNAFA Micro Credit Scheme is not a one-off, but a permanent project that would be budgeted for annually.
He reassured that the micro credit has the possibility to increase; but it depends on individual Monthly Corporation. He added that if the corporation in payment is encouraging, government would at least put ten billion Leones monthly.
Minister Saffa concluded that the hundred billion Leones MUNAFA Micro credit is just a test case to see how people would manage, reiterating that having got the desired corporation and proper managment of the funds, the loan scheme would increase from five million to ten million, ten million to fifteen million etc.
On her part, the Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Madam Manty Tarawalie said she felt elated about the launch of the National MUNFA Micro Credit support to women, asserting that women are the most vulnerable people in the society because they lack money to support their children, do not have enough to take care of themselves, some are single parents and some are married but their husbands are not financially capacitated to look after them.
She added that she is a woman herself and a single parent with two kids and therefore, she understands the problem of women in general. She added that many women are just looking for opportunities to start up their own business and look after their family. She provided statistics that 70% of households in the country are led by women. She added that banks have been asking women for collateral whenever they go for loans. She said the prayers of the women have been answered by God through President Bio, adding that with this scheme, the narratives of women would changed. She encouraged women to utilize the fund judiciously and must not serve as a recipe to disrespect their husbands.