By Mabinty M. Kamara
A new Afrobaromter survey has shown a low approval rating for how the Sierra Leone government is handling the economy. The survey showed that only 19% of people believe that the government is doing well in handling the economy.
Rating about the country’s economic performance was low on almost every indicator in the report, which is part of a series of Afrobarometer surveys that have been done by the local think tank, Institute of Governance Reform.
This report is titled: “Di gron still dry”, and it was launched virtually on Wednesday.
“The government receives lower approval rating on its economic performance than on other issues. Fewer than two in 10 respondents say the government is doing a good job of handling the economy (19%), improving living standards of the poor (15%), narrowing income gaps (10%), creating jobs (10%), and keeping prices stable (7%),” the report reads in part.
The general negative assessment of the economy has now doubled from 46% in 2012 to 84% in 2020.
The report is a reflection of popular opinion by Sierra Leoneans about the economy and its effect on their lives. Figures from the Ministry of Finance suggest that the country was on a growth trajectory until the COVID-19 pandemic. But critics have always said this hasn’t necessarily reflected well on most Sierra Leoneans.
GDP growth was just over 5% in 2019 and this year the economy is set to contract by 3.1%, the figures show.
Country Manager for World Bank, Gayle Martin, who was also part of the launch of the Afrobarometer report, said the opinion of people about the performance of their economy is extremely important.
“We have numbers about growth, etcetera, but that sentiment of how people feel is an important addition to the spectrum of surveys and data collection that we have,” she said.
Martin said she is struck at the data considering that it was collected before the pandemic hit the country which was in the end of March.
She added: “We are talking now in the midst of the COVID epidemic but the survey was done in March, so these are pre-COVID perceptions and I’m really struck by that. Because what has happened beyond that is obviously may be a bit of a downturn in circumstances to households. So what I see coming through this survey, I can anticipate it being worst if you compare it to where we are right now.”
Resident Representative of the IMF in Sierra Leone, Monique Newiak, said during the zoom meeting that the numbers are not unique to Sierra Leone. She said in the region and across the world IMF has predicted some grim figures as a consequence of the pandemic.
Madam Newiak said the IMF’s report almost two months ago about the sub region showed that the average person would lose just over 5% of their income due to the current economic situation.
The report also showed that two years in to the Bio administration, confidence about whether the country is heading in to the right direction has dropped.
Bio came to power in 2018 on the mantra of “New Direction”. But his approval rating concerning which direction the country is heading is poor, according to this report.
“Two years into the Bio administration the proportion of Sierra Leoneans who say the country is going in the right direction has declined by 13 percentage points, to just one-third (32%, compared to 45% in 2018). Although considerably higher than the low of 16% recorded in 2015 during the Ebola outbreak, popular approval is well below the 2012 result, when more than half (53%) of respondents said the country was going in the right direction,” the report stated.
Across all social demographics, majority say that the country was heading in the wrong direction.
However there are considerable variations across different regions in the country, with government strongholds saying the country was heading in the right direction, whiles opposition strongholds overwhelmingly saying its heading in the wrong direction.
In the South and Eastern regions that are government strongholds, 57% and 53% of people respectively said the country was heading in the right direction.
This is a stark contrast with 16% in the Western Area and 14% in the Northern region who said the same.
The report is not all gloomy, 42% of respondents believe that things will change for the better in the next 12 months. And because the data was gathered before the pandemic hit the country, there is also a chance that the numbers could get better if government interventions are fully taken into account in future surveys.
Managing the economy is also sixth among the top ten things Sierra Leoneans want to be addressed; top of the log is food shortage.
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