By Ralph Sesay
Minister of Information and Communications, Rado Rahman Swarray, while responding to concerns around the appointment of a single female in the reshuffled cabinet, has pegged all female political appointments by the Bio administration so far at 27.9% in less than two years.
The Information Minister noted that the New Direction Government is on record for introducing the most stringent SGBV and Rape law, the appointment of quite a good number of females within and around cabinet including the first Female Attorney General, and quite recently the allocation of over one hundred billion Leones for the development of SMEs in the 2020 budget.
All of these achievements, according to him, are geared towards empowering and supporting the development and advancement of women in the country which the Minister indicated has never been done by any government.
The Information Minister also used the opportunity to explain to the journalists that the creation of the Ministries of Environment and Children’s Affairs was very much in tune with what was happening both within and outside the country.
Rado Swarry underscored the point that Sierra Leone is ranked as the third disaster prone in the world and has had very devastating natural disasters which left many of our compatriots dead and properties destroyed and hence the creation of the Ministry of Environment was timely and also meant that the President is serious in ensuring that the mistakes of the past in terms of the management of our Environment is nipped in the bud.
He also noted that the far reaching cry by women for the creation of a Women’s Commission has necessitated the creation of the Children and Gender Affairs Ministry.
The Minister allayed the fears of members of the public that government would not spend much in the setting up of the Ministries as there are already civil servants that will be posted to the newly created Ministries.
The Information Minister stated that he is happy and government is satisfied that this time around the issue of tribalism and regionalism has not featured prominently in discussing the composition of the cabinet reshuffle as President Bio has gone as far as Falaba in selecting a Minister of Government.
Rado Rahman Swarray also spoke on various highlights of the 2020 budget such as the increment of 20% in the wage bill, provision of over 3,000 jobs for beach boys in the tourism sector and also the allocation of one hundred billion to support the growth of SMEs in the country.
The budget, according to him, is a bread and butter budget and has responded to the clarion call by Sierra Leoneans to fix the bread and butter issues in the country.