By Saio Marrah
The Chief Executive Officer of Belvedere Sierra Leone Limited, Dr. Patrick Kormawa, has called for Sierra Leone to focus on production activities, saying that it's the only means of salvaging the current economic crisis in the country.
The CEO was speaking at the Second Annual Conference of the Economic Association of Sierra Leone (EASL), with the theme “Economic Uncertainties, COVID-19 and Geopolitical Tensions: The Way Forward for Sierra Leone and Africa.”
Kormawa noted that manufacturing has proven to raise countries from poverty to prosperity, referencing Mauritius, an Island country that has an inflation rate of 9.7 in 2022, as compared to Sierra Leone with 29.4.
He said Mauritius has fewer resources as compared to Sierra Leone, but what has turned around their economy is their focus on only one commodity, sugar production.
The CEO said the country made history by relying on the sugar industry for its economic growth and from the experience in sugar production Mauritius became one of the textile industrial countries in the world.
He also talked about how the Island country imports cotton from West Africa, add value to it and ship to the United States.
Kormawa said learning from the sugar industry in that country can be comparable to Sierra Leone’s agricultural system. According to him, if Sierra Leone can focus on one or two agricultural commodities and develop agro industrialization then other industries can come on board.
He pointed out that once Sierra Leone is able to do the same with focus on agriculture, the country’s economy will turn around, and jobs will be created as well.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Francis M. KaiKai, in acknowledging that there cannot be another topic worthier of discussion in contemporary times than the theme of this year’s EASL conference, said prior to the ravages of the COVID 19 and the subsequent geopolitical tensions from the Russian Ukraine war, Sierra Leone was already grappling with the devastation of climate change and biodiversity loss across the world, with the attendant food and other human security crisis.
He said Sierra Leone had only implemented the current Medium TERM National Development Plan for about nine months when COVID 19 hit the global economy and that given the high level of exposure of the international market dynamics, Sierra Leone’s GDP dropped from 5.3% in 2019 to minus 2.0% in 2020.
He said while the government had managed to recover to 2.9% in 2021, following the pursuit of COVID 19 related national mitigation strategies, the compounded effect from the war on Ukraine and geopolitical tensions have seen the country’s growth projection for 2022 significantly revised from 5.9 to 2.8%.
He said in the same vein, the medium term outlook for the economy (2023 2025) will remain challenging in the wake of the overlapping crisis.
In the recent 2023 government budget and statement of economic and financial policies presented to parliament it was forecasted that growth will not return to the pre- pandemic level until 2025.
Those challenges he said have caused unprecedented revenue squeeze for the government to effectively implement some aspects of the Medium Term National Development Plan.
Nonetheless, Dr. Kaikai said the government has ensured a swift response to counter the effects of COVID 19, months before the country recorded its first index case in March 2020.
He said because of government’s effort, the economy of Sierra Leone has been able to demonstrate minimum resilience over the last three years in the face of challenges.
He said it brings forward responsibility for the country to invest more in socio- economic research and policy dialogue to informed alternative and innovative paths towards building resilience in the country’s economies for better response to external shocks in the future.
Other economists also made several contributions via PowerPoint presentation all geared towards reducing employment rate and salvaging the economy of Sierra Leone and other developing African countries.
In an interview with the President of the EASL, Dr. Ibrahim B. Kargbo, the rationale for the conference is as a result of the economic crisis that has seriously hit the country and the rest of the African Continent due to the impact of COVID-19, and the Russia Ukraine-War.
As economists he said they have a responsibility to come on board to look at the causes and proffer solutions to the economic turmoil.
He also talked about the productive capacity, which falls under the sub topics of this year’s theme.
Dr. Kargbo therefore said “If we are able to produce the goods which we consume in this country or in Africa, which will go a long way to stabilize things like the exchange rate. It will stabilize what we earn in terms of monthly salaries. So the value of what you receive in your pocket is key.”
He said that value can only constantly improve if there is also respect in terms of the country’s currency performance with those of other countries.
Another sub topic that was discussed is fiscal policy. He said that deals with how a country’s fiscal policy looks like in terms of crisis.
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