By Nasratu Kargbo
The Minister of Trade and Industry Dr. Edward Hinga Sandy on the 23 September 2021 during an interview with pressmen stated that the problem of price control can be solved when the focus is shifted on industrialization, “the ministry wants to shift from the norm which is just focusing on trade and focus now on the industry,” said Sandy.
The Minister said that as a way to improve the country’s economy and strengthen the ministry to implement some of its mandates, the ministry needs to pay attention to the industry. “The potential to improve our economy is in the industry, once we are able to improve our economy, that will create jobs and we would start producing some of the things we consume, so we can cut down on importation.” He explained that the introduction of new structures would enable the ministry to implement its mandate and will focus on industry development, compliance, monitoring and more.
He made mention of petroleum sector and how they brought in another company in the industry; adding that the existing businesses have frowned at the idea because they believe it would reduce the market share. “With such competition the consumer’s interest will be assured,” said Sandy.
He made example that if the country was to have a Pepper sauce industry, pepper scarcity, or the hike in the price of pepper would be mitigated, this is because the public would simply go for pepper sauce when there is pepper scarcity or choose to buy the sauce when there is a hike in price.
The minister also spoke on other commodities such as vegetable oil; he explained that the country is doing very well with vegetable oil; he also stated that the government has supported Socfin which produces palm oil which is refined into vegetable oil by another company. He said Sierra Leone has the cheapest vegetable oil in the sub-region.
When asked about the reason for the hike in the price of cement, Sandy explained that COVID has had a great impact on the global logistic chain and that the freight charges have increased. He explained that before now they imported cement at $20 from Turkey, but now one metric ton of cement costs $50 or $40 that is if they are bagged or not bagged respectively. He continued to explain that the freight charge is even more expensive than the cement itself “the freight now is between $66 to $70” Sandy noted that if the amount is calculated together with the money paid at the port, GST, duty etc. then one would know the reason why the prices of some commodities are soaring. He said this is happening not only in Sierra Leone but all around the world.
Speaking on interventions to be made in order to solve the problem of cement, the Minster explained that the ministry is engaging the private sector to get more cement factories in the country; he said these restructuring might create inconveniences for existing businesses “but if we do not do that, the future will be difficult”. He said the only cement factory the country had is Leocem. He said because of equipment and some other factors, Leocem cannot produce 10% of what the country needs, as a result of this, the country relies on imported cement.
The ministry presented their budget during the budget hearing, according to the Minister, it was done in two phases; one has to do with recurrent which runs close to 10 billion and the capital budget which is close to 5 billion. The total budget for both phases is about 15 billion.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (27/09/21)
