By Amin Kef Sesay
The three days Legislative Reform Webinar Series, which started on the 12th October, 2020 successfully ended on the 14th October 2020. It was organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in partnership with the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) and the Ministry of Justice.
The three days important event was part of the Trade Ministry’s commitment to drive policy reforms in order to improve Government service delivery and ultimately Sierra Leone’s ranking on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business.
During the first day which was moderated by the Director and Chief Officer of the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), Michala Mackay, the Director of Policy cum Doing Business Coordinator in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Madam Saffie Deen-Tarawally , succinctly gave a synopsis of the status quo of doing business in Sierra Leone.
She dilated on areas like how the IFC/World Bank Doing Business Reforms project was established by the World Bank in 2002, as a flagship project that measures the ease of doing business in 190 countries/ economies in the world, for private sector development further revealing that Sierra Leone joined the project in 2005.
Madam Saffie Deen-Tarawally furthered that the project looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them adding how it is a project where growth opportunities for local businesses are compared and measured annually amongst economies worldwide.
“The Doing Business Reforms project is an integral part of Government’s commitment in the New Direction and the Medium Term National Development Plan, to improving Sierra Leone’s business environment,” Madam Saffie Deen-Tarawally also highlighted
On Day 2 of the event, the 13th October 2020, the programme was moderated by Chuku Chikezie and the topic that was exhaustively discussed by all the panellists was “Getting Credit”. Those who contributed include Christopher Forster of the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce, Philip Bangura of the Credit Reference Bureau of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Ndeye Koroma of the Millennium Challenge Coordinating Unit and Marie Bob Kandeh of the Market Women’s Association.
What emanated from what nearly all the panellists pointed out is that it is really challenging for business people, especially those who are involved in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to access loans from commercial Banks. They highlighted lack of collateral securities as well as other bottlenecks that impede accessibility to loans for the expansion of their business enterprises.
Besides, most lamented that interest rates are exorbitant, micro-credit organizations also dish out credits with stiff conditions with some defaulters sent to prison etc.
It was, however, unanimously resolved that if this country is to enhance its ranking among other countries in terms of ease of doing business then those bottlenecks must be surmounted.
During the last day’s discussions, the 14th October 2020, which bordered on “Dealing With Building Permits” and was moderated by Salima Monormah Bah the panellists were Mohamed Sama Banya, who represented his boss, Augustine Kai Banya, Director of Housing and Country Planning, Ing Edmond B. Nonie, Chief Executive Officer of Track Your Build, Ing Trudy Morgan, Council of Engineers and Pierre Palmer of the Guma Valley Water Company.
Mohamed Sama Banya stated that the Ministry of Lands has as one of its core functions the issuance of building permits underscoring how it involves a process. He said land is used for various purposes including for residential, commercial, industrial, mining, recreational, religious and other purposes.
He dilated on existing legislations with particular reference to the Town and Country Planning Act and the Freetown Improvement Act further maintaining that there are certain sections in those Acts which must be overhauled adding that development is going at a faster pace than planning.
Mohamed took participants and the audience through the stages of securing a building construction permit starting from the submission of application letters to the Chief Building Inspector to when authorization is given for payment to be made to the National Revenue Authority (NRA). He, however, made it categorically clear that faulty plans are returned to the applicants.
In highlighting some of the challenges they are encountering in the issuance of building permits, he made mention of shortage of staff, mobility, security, revisiting and upgrading the National Housing Policy, finalizing the completion of revised Town and Country Planning Act, capacity building and recruitment of additional staff.
In her contribution, Ing Trudy Morgan, pointed out that there are no transparent fees and tariffs, there is lack of monitoring of applications, lack of penalties for non-compliance, low number of qualified staff undertaking approvals.
She also highlighted how there is lack of coordination with the Guma Valley Water Company, EDSA, and other utility providers.
In her recommendations, she suggested making use of automation, upholding transparency and consistency. She also recommended linking building permits to zoning, devolution as per the 2004 Act (National and Local), creation at city level of structural and local area plans, consideration of land use and land use mix, consideration of historic and touristic districts plus sites, updating and publicizing all relevant bye-laws, update, simplify, publicize all building permit fees and tariffs, enforcement of penalties for non-compliance and improvement of staff capacity.
Pierre Palmer of the Guma Valley Water Company assured of their continued working relationship with other relevant stakeholders, when it comes to building structures, maintaining that they can only achieve the desired goal of improving doing business by working closely.
Giving the closing remarks, Abraham Jones of the Ministry of Trade commended DSTI for its tremendous efforts in making the webinar series a success. He also commended the Minister of Trade of Rwanda for her insightful contributions in terms of how they got it right in terms of ease of doing business in the country. He promised taking them into consideration while implementing.
Jones also commended the Minister of Trade, Edward Hinga Sandy, for making the Ministry a vibrant entity. He expressed hope that in the next World Bank ranking, in terms of ease of doing business in the country, Sierra Leone will occupy an enviable position.
It is almost two and half years since these guys took over this ministry and yet they are still in planning and discussion. They will have workshops meetings that would cost the government million of Leones or thousands of dollars and yet we do not see any result.
These are the deadwoods in the Bio government that are not achieving anything.