By Ralph Sesay
His Excellency, the President, Julius Maada Bio, has wowed officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume loan financing to the country. Bio was making this appeal on Friday at State House in Freetown where he was meeting officials of the IMF.
In his opening remarks, the President stated that the purpose of the seminar, between his Government and the IMF, was to discuss the present economic vulnerability and challenges facing the country and to further suggest ways to quickly bring back sanity to the policy environment.
According to the President, he has inherited the worst economy ever in the country’s history, wherein the previous Government cannot pay salaries without borrowing or heavily relying on overdraft facility at the Bank of Sierra Leone, which currently stands at 160 billion Leones.
He intimated IMF officials that the status of the country’s two owned banks is significantly challenging, as they have huge non-performing loans, some to politically exposed persons. External and domestic debts are very high, according to Bio, as they stand at 2.0 billion and 4.9 trillions Leones respectively. President Bio stated that the poverty rate in the country stands at 77%.
He used the meeting to disclose to the IMF team immediate remedial measures his Government has taken to immediately revamp the economy. This, according to him, includes putting an immediate moratorium on duty waivers and tax holidays inherited by his Government.
“We have also ordered Ministries, Departments and agencies, that collect and retain Government revenue, to immediately transfer such funds to a consolidated revenue account pursuant to the Fiscal Management and Control Act of 2017,” the President concluded.
It is not clear whether the IMF would immediately resume the Extended Credit Facility to the country, but IMF officials have stated that this resumption of talks between them and the new government is very critical to the process.
It could be recalled that the IMF has suspended the Extended Credit Facility program to the Government of Sierra Leone few months to the March elections on the basis that they had reneged on a key condition, which was to reduce subsidy on fuel and rice.