By Foday Moriba Conteh
The presence in this country of high powered delegations from both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and soon to be followed by the presence of the President of the African Development Bank, Mr Akinwumi Adesine, speaks volumes about the high credibility and confidence bestowed upon the Ministry of Finance and the Minister himself, Jacob Jusu Saffa and other Executives of the Finance Ministry who are all working as a team to lift this country’s economy from the bottom.
All of them are highly impressed with the work of the Finance Ministry and are therefore showing it openly that this country is one ripe enough to do business with.
For the first time in the history of Sierra Leone has such a gesture being expressed so openly to this country for meeting set targets of the said organizations which have all expressed satisfaction with the way the financial aspects of this country are being run.
Under this New Direction, Revenue Collection is on the increase and the debt burden of this country is been reduced dramatically.
Even though the opposition is trying to make it look like “de gron dry”, the long and short term policies of this Government will soon put the economy back on track.
The Finance Act of 2020 is one that did attract commendations from both the Parliament of Sierra Leone and the said organizations.
The Act itself contains provisions that alter and introduce a new tax regime and also explains how funds are raised for projections in the budget as it must precede the passing of the budget.
The Act itself enhances economic prudence and fosters growth improvement.
Minister of Finance Mr JJ Saffa who is a Governor at the ADB, played an integral role in the capital budget increase of the annual budget of the ADB.
His thorough brinkmanship was to move the ADB to give support to women in agriculture and in the water development sector.
Before the passing off away of the past regime, the IMF, World Bank and the ADB, all vamoosed from this country due to poor economic management by the Koroma regime but now under the President Bio New Direction, all of them are back to work as partners with the Bio led Government.
