By Amin Kef Sesay
In a national broadcast on New Year’s eve, President Julius Maada Bio told the nation that just over a week ago, he switched on the CLSG interconnection at Tiloma, bringing sustainable electricity to the regional capitals of Eastern and Southern Sierra Leone.
He continued that last year alone, working with partners, they have lit up 23 more towns and communities in rural Sierra Leone including Masiaka, Foredugu, Mambolo, Mange, and Rokupr in the north; Moyamba Junction, Taiama, Sumbuya, Koribondo, and Sulima in the south; and, Gorahun, Boajibu, Jojoima, Mobai, and Manowa Town in the East. The President said Government’s 148 MW energy generation agreement for the Western Area has been ratified by parliament and they are refurbishing transmission and distribution assets and lines and planning new investments in the energy sector.
President Bio said four years on, they have moved from very expensive and dirty temporary energy fixes to more sustainable and affordable options including green energy sources maintaining how such is progress.
“In 2021, we completed the 46 km Bo-Bandajuma Road and substantial work has been done on the Bandajuma to Mano River Union Road including three bridges,” he revealed adding how the 36 km Moyamba Junction to Moyamba Road including 4 major bridges is complete, how the 28km Pendembu to Kailahun Road is near completion.
He also disclosed how over a hundred kilometres of city roads in the north, south, east, and west have been or are being completely resurfaced saying they have done extensive re-gravelling work on 1,800 km of roads across the country.
“As a result of my much-derided travels, our friends in the European Union and World Bank among others have given Sierra Leone grants of over a hundred million US dollars for the Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Project and modern bridges that will replace hand-pulled cable-ferries,” he stated adding that the highway to Masiaka is completed with tree-lined medians.
President Bio told the nation that in a few months, he will commission a brand new and modern Magbele Bridge over the Rokel River and a brand new and modern Mabang Bridge over the Ribbi River stating that is what national infrastructural development is saying that is progress.
He informed that in 2021, they kept millions of children in school, including girls and children with disabilities.
“We provided them with free teaching and learning materials and food in some locations,” he said maintaining that Radical Inclusion is here to stay.
The President went on to state that in 2021 they trained thousands of teachers and education sector workers, built or renovated over 100 schools and resourced libraries, updated and reviewed curricula, and, in collaboration with civil society, international institutions, and development partners used cutting edge technologies and introduced ground-breaking policies.
He said they continued to nail the country’s flag on the mast of innovation with a Sierra Leonean, Jeremiah Thoronka, winning a global prize for technology.
“As a nation, we have been recognized for developing effective home-grown, technology mediated solutions to fight COVID-19 and deliver healthcare,” he stated furthering how in 2021, they have delivered on their promises to restructure the governance of tertiary and higher education, resolved the Limkokwing impasse, rehabilitated infrastructure across all public institutions, established and improved TVET across the country, and provided greater access to higher education, especially for women studying STEM disciplines.
The President said Social safety-net schemes are now better structured and more impactful for vulnerable populations than 5 years ago. He continued that his Government expanded opportunity for youth, women, and persons with disabilities.
“Entrepreneurship and stimulus grants, job-creation, skills training, and low-interest loans have benefitted women and youth,” he stated adding how from youth farms, youth in fisheries, youth carwashes, and to youth-at-risk training schemes and start-up kits, they are putting thousands of young people on the path to empowerment and economic opportunity.
President Julius Maada Bio said 2021 was the year of strengthening the foundation for transformative change in the health sector even as the country battled and prevailed over three waves of COVID-19 attacks.
“We expanded primary healthcare services by increasing Primary Healthcare Units (PHUS) to 1500, spread throughout the country so that every Sierra Leonean has access to one within a 5-mile radius,” he said .
According to the President, for 2022, they are all focused on improving pandemic preparedness and response; enhancing the quality of services delivered at PHUs through infrastructure and equipment upgrades; improving quality of staff at the different cadres and making high quality drugs available in hospital pharmacies; and improving the quality of services at all the secondary and tertiary hospitals.
He said in 2021, they increased budgetary allocation to the health sector to 11.6 % of GDP revealing how their international partners such as the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and the World Bank expressed their confidence in the Government’s reforms by increasing their funding support to $157M, and $78M respectively.
“With these and additional resources, 2022 will be an even better year for transforming the healthcare sector, dramatically reducing maternal mortality, improving infant survival, and expanding quality physical and mental healthcare to Sierra Leoneans,” he stated.
He also said in 2021, they provided more garbage skips throughout the country to improve public sanitation, especially in urban centres, increased investment in public safety and disaster management.
“We have improved our climate mitigation and adaptation interventions and we intend to follow through on our green commitments while actively seeking green investments in our business-friendly ecosystem,” he stated.
He said in 2021, the country made progress toward sustainable food security stating how they made a big push to support private sector engagement in the agriculture sector by establishing 14 mechanisation service centres, making a Le100 billion low-interest agriculture credit facility available for agri businesses, providing Le8.2 billion worth of improved rice seeds through an e-voucher system targeting youth and women, and cultivated over 15,000 hectares of rice to support food insecure households across the country.
The President said as a result of these interventions, there is a 21% jump in rice production from 2020, according to an ECOWAS pre-harvest assessment.
“From job creation for youth and women, competitive financing for value addition and agribusiness, new tree crop establishments for cocoa and oil-palm, a National Comprehensive Soil Survey, a National Mechanisation Policy, a National Irrigation Master Plan, to the Smallholder Commercialisation and Agribusiness Development Project, we are making steady progress towards food security and wealth creation in the agricultural sector,” he said.
Across Government, President Bio stated how they have made significant improvement in governance and ruling justly, how there is more devolution, more engagement with civil society, and greater citizens’ participation in local governance.
“Our much-lauded judicial and justice-sector reforms now mean far greater access to justice for more Sierra Leoneans than at any time before,” he said adding how they will soon release the Government White Paper on Constitutional Reforms that will account for gaps and lacunae in the current constitution.
He said in 2021, they abolished the death penalty forever and also laid in parliament a seminal law for gender equality and empowerment.
The President said for the control of corruption, the Millennium Challenge Corporation scores Sierra Leone at an unprecedented 83% this year – up from a failing 49% for the past Government – for the country’s effective fight against corruption.
He pointed out how domestic revenue mobilization is up, inflation is largely in check, procurement and other financial processes are better monitored, and public-sector salaries are paid regularly each month.
“In 2021, we launched the geodata from the national geophysical survey, amicably resolved disputes and attracted new investments and created hundreds of new jobs in the mining sector,” he highlighted stating that as a result of their policies and collaboration with their partners, the mines have stayed open and added more jobs throughout COVID.
In terms of reduced telecoms rates and expanded coverage in a more competitive telecoms sector, increased internet penetration, and legislative and other reforms in the communications sector, the President said have been truly remarkable in 2021.
He stated that there is no journalist is in prison for the practice of journalism; the country’s cybercrime laws are in accord with international best practices, and the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and international bodies have recognised that media freedoms are at an all-time high.
In 2021, the President said Sierra Leone became the fourth African country to sign the global pledge on media freedoms and Sierra Leone will further bolster its global reputation for religious tolerance by signing up to the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.
He continued that In 2021, the country’s international profile improved even further with continental leadership of C-10, consideration for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and recognition at several international summits for investing in education and especially girls’ education, protecting and promoting women’s rights, and for maintaining and widening win-win relationships with historical and new partners.
“In 2021, our Sierra Leone was recognised as the 4th most peaceful country in Africa. In sports, Sierra Leoneans brought home laurels in dozens of disciplines. We continued to improve on and invest in sports and in a few weeks, Sierra Leone will be playing in the African Cup of Nations after 25 years,” he stated.
President Bio said as Sierra Leoneans, we have a lot to be proud of maintaining how in 2021, they achieved a lot in spite of the turbulence of those times; in spite of the unpredictability of the global economy; and in spite of the misinformation-laden rhetoric of bad politicians.
“Sierra Leone is forging ahead, undeterred and with purpose,” he told Sierra Leoneans and the outside world affirming that they are determined to keep the nation on the path of a New Direction wishing everyone a Happy New Year and prayed for God to bless Sierra Leone.
