By Amin Kef Sesay
The Ministry of Finance has on Friday 4th September 2020 certified thirty economists from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Statistics Sierra Leone, Bank of Sierra Leone, and Parliament Budgetary Office. This came after two months of training on enhancing policy development through research and capacity building.
According to the Director of Research and Delivery in the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Yakama Jones, the project is being funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in their transition support to the Government of Sierra Leone on enhancing policy development through research and capacity building.
She said the goal of the project is to capacitate the Ministry of Finance to undertake effective and timely research to support policy formulation and analysis, nurture the culture of research in technical staff, and mentor graduates.
Dr. Jones stated that the project has three main components which are the training, the provision of tools like software, tablets, computers, journals, and support to field research and the provision of an economic research center, noting that this is a 750,000 United State Dollars project.
The Country Programme Officer of AfDB, Madam Felicitas Chi Cho Atanga, commended the Minister of Finance for opening up the project to other Government institutions.
She thanked the consultant trainer for a job well done and congratulated the trainees, whiles hoping that the training will be useful to them.
Madam Felicitas Chi Cho Atanga, assured the Ministry of Finance of the Bank’s continual support to the project and other projects that will help in capacity building and research activities.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Finance Mr. Jacob Jusu Saffa stressed the need for research and how research can inform economic policies.
He told the trainees that whatever they do in research will help them to build their capacity to be able to convince people, adding that research should not always be about organized training; but the willingness to use the internet to acquire knowledge in various areas.
He assured trainees of the opportunity to build on what they have learned from different overseas training.
Jacob Jusu Saffa also assured the participants that the Ministry will ensure that they are given computers and other tools to enable their work.
He however cautioned them that the safety of the computers should be their responsibility because if they got missing they will have to pay for them.
The Chief Economist in the Ministry of Finance, Alimamy Bangura, stressed the Minister of Finance research agenda, noting that the Minister is a lover of research. He called on the certified trainees to take what they have learned seriously and also endeavor to build on what they have learned so far.
Sahr Lahai Jusu, Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance called on the trainees to build on their capacity by being part of a lot of trainings that are going on online as a result of the Corona pandemic.
