By Mary Kabay
During a Press Briefing that was hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications on the 28 January 2021 where the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Sierra Leone Road Authority(SLRA) were present a lot of issues were discussed.
In her statement the moderator of the briefing, who doubles as the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Mamadi Gobeh Kamara, introduced the various institutional representatives.
On his part, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Hinga Sandy pointed out that COVID -19 has impacted negatively on the trade industry maintain that such has been accentuated by the global lock downs and the recent border closure by neighbouring Guinea maintaining that both the strong and weaker countries are all affected.
He intimated that the clearing of 40 feet before the global pandemic cost $2,500 but has now gone up to $7000-$800 stating that such is affecting the prices of imported goods sold in the country.
The Minister underscored that it is a global problem but said the prices of fuel and other petroleum products went down disclosing how the Ministry has engaged indigenous productive entities on the need to step up in order to avoid food shortage during these crucial times.
Director General of the Sierra Leone Road Authority(SLRA), Ing Amara Kanneh outlined the overview of the Sierra Leone Road Authority, the status of the National Road Network as at January, Road infrastructure Development Policy References (strategic plan, National Medium-Term Development Plan, Presidential statements. Implementation strategies, their achievements from 2018-2020 and their short term plans from 2021-2023.
