By Saio Marrah
Parliament has unanimously approved a financing grant agreement between Sierra Leone and the International Development Association (IDA).
The agreement, according to officials of Ministry of Finance, includes seven grants and one loan. The loan has low interest rates, they say.
The agreement contains an amount of $ 50 million for the Free Quality Education project, $ 40 million for Economic Diversification project, $ 30 million for additional financing for small holders commercialization and agribusiness development project, $ 12,500 for multi-country COVID-19 crisis response support programme for Liberia, The Gambia and Sierra Leone, $ 400,000 for Multinational Letter of Agreement transition support facility (TSF) Project for digitisation of government payment in the Mano River Union (MRU) between Sierra Leone and the African Development Fund, $ 18,300,000 for the West Africa Regional Energy Trade Development Policy Financing programme-Sierra Leone and a $ 10 million loan agreement between Sierra Leone and the Islamic Development Bank for strengthening COVID-19 Response and Essential Health Services projects.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday 15 December, the Speaker Dr. Abass Bundu told MPs to focus the debate on the loan because gifts, donations and grants were only brought to parliament for ratifications. He also said that the different MDAs for which the grants and loans were being made should have been in parliament when the MPs debated them.
The Deputy Minister of Finance I, Dr. Patricia Laverley, in her presentation to the House said the loan agreement between SL and IDB would strengthen the healthcare delivery system by providing 10 secondary hospitals in 10 districts, including in Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Kabala and Port Loko.
“The expected benefits for these projects are enormous. It will strengthen the health care system by providing ten health centres: three secondary hospitals in the northern region, one secondary hospital in the north-western region in Port Loko, three secondary hospitals in the southern region, and three secondary hospitals in the eastern region. It will also create employment facilities for non-health workers,” she said.
Dr. Laverley explained that the loan would be paid within the period of 25 years and that government would also pay a service fee of 1.5 present per annum.
The chairman of the finance committee, Francis Amara Kaisamba, while praising the Deputy Minister for her role in securing the grants and loans, said the ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), as one of the beneficiaries of the agreement, should make sure the school feeding programme was realised across all the 16 districts in the country.
Member of Parliament Alice Jebbeh Kuyembeh called the attention of MBSSE to upgrade agriculture practical work in schools, noting that students graduate with a degree in agriculture with little or no interest in it. She added that if the country wanted to experience better agricultural output, the government must take agriculture to the schools.
In her response to issues raised by these and many other lawmakers, Dr. Laverley assured that MBSSE would expand on the practical aspect of agriculture in school.
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