By: Precious Miracle Kargbo
The Newly Appointed Bank Governor, Dr Ibrahim Stevens has made his first appearance to the Press and the Pubic to clearly give and understanding on the role of the central bank and his function as a commissioner which is to control the monetary growth and to control inflation and its effect in the country.
He made this statement during an interview at the Radio Democracy “Gud Mornin Salone Show” on the 22nd November 2023, at New England Ville Freetown.
To start with, Dr Ibrahim maintained that there are two main interest that will be set in order to achieve monetary stability and to control the issue of circulation, he extends that this work is simple to put but it can be a very delicate job and that is why they will be working with the Ministry of Finance through a system known as the Fiscal Policy.
He went on to indicate that during his acting period as Bank Governor his relationship with the Minister of Finance has been very healthy and a clear consequence from their relationship is the completion of the IMF assessment for Sierra Leone in two consecutive times.
He further claimed that the financial job is not a one-man job but a collaborative effort by everyone so that the economic stability which is so desired by the people of this country will be achieved.
Furthermore, the Governor highlights that Sierra Leone is indeed in a very challenging environment and no one is happy about that and that is the main reason why everyone should come on board.
He said they are working consistently with their instruments through the monetary policy rate which tracks other rates in the economy or the economy rates tracks them in return as our expectation of this rate is that every market rate should be tracked as it now sits on 21% percentage rate.
He noted that this policy will also be able to relate to what the bank does and other financial systems in the country as it is a continuous process that will take time during this interesting period.
Shedding light on the Financial and banking relationships, he started that is the relationship between banks and their customers is improved then the process of determining rate will become straight forward as they will be able to follow the policy which will be sent by the Central Bank.
Dr Stevens carried on explaining that the Old Leones note will stop to be used as a legal tender and will not be acceptable in any form of transaction in any confines of Sierra Leone.
He clarified that the new and most important message that should be taken into consideration with this new note is that anyone wont loose the old Leones and its values but on the 1st January – March 2024 anyone with old Leones should make sure that it is taken to any commercial bank, community bank, deposit taking bank, micro- finance institution and bank of Sierra Leone will surely get the face of value of what is taken to the bank i.e. if old ten Leones is taken back then the same value of New Ten Leones should be returned.
He furthers that even after the January- March Period no one will lose their money as they will be taken back and exchanged on the same value at any of the Sierra Leone commercial bank locations in the country and other locations and methods which will be used so that the circulation process will be easy and efficient for every citizen to do.
Conclusively, Dr Ibrahim assured that even though there is deadline for the circulation of the old Leones but there is no deadline for these notes to be taken back to any central bank in the country. He resonated that he will give the assurance to every Sierra Leonean that the plan that has been put in place will definitely see the success on the redenomination and transition of the old Leones to New Leones.