By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
Delivering a keynote address during the launch of a Fiscal and Policy Brief on COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, Mattia Kou Dimoh said the impacts of the pandemic would continue to live “with us” for the ‘foreseeable future’ despite Sierra Leone’s effort to defeat the virus.
The event was organized by the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) at the Council of Churches Sierra Leone hall in Freetown on 11th October this year.
He said it is important to identify and document those measures that helped fight COVID-19, adding it is also important to draw lessons from the pandemic that he said could be relevant either for the current moment or later.
He noted that the effects of the pandemic on the country’s economy must be mitigated. Reflecting on the measures that the government put in place during the COVID-19, he said “We have to look at four key areas that we must keep in mind as a country,” noting the togetherness of people during that time, the legal framework that explained how money should be allocated to the important services that citizens needed at that time, safety nets and financial management and systems undertaken by the Ministry of Finance.
In his remarks, the Programme Coordinator of BAN, Abubakar Kamara said the Research is based on the issues encountered during the Covid-19, saying the research looked at the socio-economic and gender issues, and small and medium businesses that citizens managed during the pandemic. Kamara spoke about the role played by the government during the pandemic which he said is contained in the report.
He added that the report is anchored on the lessons learned during the height of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone and is a collection of other reports about the disease as well.
Analyzing the report, the Co-coordinator, Abu Bakar Tarawally said the country’s GDP was projected to grow by 4.5% in 2020 but ‘plummeted’ to -2.0%,n due to the decline in foreign demand for major exports and the decline in the production in the mining, trade, transport and tourism sectors.
“The government removed some restrictions by the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 and it led to a GDP growth rate of 4% in 2021,” he stated.
Speaking about the Gender Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone, he said households led by women were more vulnerable than those headed by males, adding women headed families were less well- informed about the disease earlier.
The report quoted the Rainbo Initiative data which says that 3,548 (three thousand five hundred and forty-eight incidences of Gender-Based Violence was recorded during the Covid-19 Pandemic. A representative from the Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Abu Komeh said the emergence of Covid-19 exposed the country’s reserve, noting the Russia-Ukraine war has made things worse for economies. On government intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic, Komeh said the government introduced tax relief and subsidies. He said whenever there is a crisis, the government should make efforts to subsidize and that they should come up with tax relief. “The Bank of Sierra Leone established the special credit facility,” he said, adding that Sierra Leone relies on importation, hence the government gave business people funds to build their supply and that the Bank of Sierra Leone also put out 50 million dollars to help importers.
“We are still feeling the impacts of Covid-19,’’ he emphasized. To overcome the challenges emanating from the said war, he said a special facility was created to provide 50 million US dollars to allow the importation of essential food commodities. Amidst the crisis, there have to be some cautions that the government needs to observe, he said. On resource mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic, Komeh said the Government of Sierra Leone worked with Global financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF to cushion the effects of Covid.
He said the resources that the government generates are not enough to support its expenditure, and needed to find other ways to support other major sectors.Africa Tax Justice Network funded the report.
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