By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
A new report launched by the World Bank has shown that agricultural labour is the least productive compared to other sectors within Sierra Leone’s economy. The report titled: ‘Promoting Economic Diversification in Sierra Leone,’ was launched on Tuesday at the Radisson Blu Mamy Yoko hotel in Freetown.
“In 2018 agriculture employed 58.8% of the labour force, services 32.4% and industry 5.7%. However, agricultural labour has historically been the least productive,” a portion of the report states.
“This kind of resource misallocation, with most of the labour force is the least productive sector, meaning the economy is operating below its potential,” it adds.
Sierra Leone’s economy heavily relies on agriculture and mining, with agriculture alone accounting for 60% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In 2014 the country’s reliance on the mining sector almost collapsed its economy following the global fall in iron ore prices.
Financial experts and international lenders like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, as well as the government, have been talking about diversification into other sectors for years. This report shows that Sierra Leone’s economy has a growth volatility.
Country Manager of World Bank, Dr Martin Gayle, said the discussions surrounding the report should now be focused on structural transformation, moving out of subsistence farming and the combination of farming and agricultural processing.
“As we talk about agriculture, I also want us to talk not just about farming but also agri processing. As you see the study also took a deep dive on manufacturing and productivity. Agri processing is characterized in that sector… and agri processing is what provides the pull factor so that farming can provide the goods that the markets want,” Dr Gayle later told press men.
Gayle said the path to the possible solutions is faced with infrastructural challenges. She noted that there were significant infrastructural gaps within the financial architecture which government and the Bank had been in talks to address.
The Deputy Minister of Finance II, Dr Sheku Bangura, who was present during the launch, said government recognized the challenge facing the sector. He said they had moved to promote agriculture from its current state.
“The simple truth is that we need to diversify our economy. This has been overemphasized. The need for diversification is at the center of government’s plan to walk out of fragility,” he said.
Dr Bangura said the government understood that the risk of depending on one or two sectors, noting that they were working on programs like diversification and domestic revenue mobilization to take the economy out of “fragility”. He added that they were also working on improving the business climate and improving the country’s poor standing in the global competitive index.
The launch brought together investors from both the public and private sectors, financial institutions, bank executives and government officials. They used the occasion to discuss possible action points that they could work on regarding the issues that were highlighted in the report.
Senior Economist at the World Bank Country Office, Kemoh Mansaray, said during the launch that as a solution the government should look at adding value to manufacturing in the agricultural sector, invest in physical infrastructure and work to improve the country’s global competitive ranking.
“These things are doable. Countries with similar economic structures have done them and succeeded. Cote’ d Ivoire and Rwanda have done them. These two countries are the top two reformers in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Mansaray said.
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