By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Authorities in Sierra Leone have said mining revenue has dropped due to the impact of COVID-19.
The revenue drop has been attributed to the difficulties in exporting and the disruption in the supply chain.
Chief Economist at the Ministry of Finance, Alimamy Bangura, said in a press briefing on Monday:
“Now Koidu Holdings that is producing diamonds, because of the suspension of flights, they are finding it difficult to export diamonds. In fact they are going to reduce production and they have already asked for tax waivers. We expected Kingho to take over Iron ore mining in Tonkolili mines and that is not happening at the moment. So iron ore production is going to be zero.”
Some 80% of the country’s export comes from mining, meaning it contributes a greater portion of the country’s foreign reserves.
The sector is almost grinding to a halt amidst the continued difficulties imposed by the global pandemic.
Specific figures were not provided by officials, but the loss in tax revenue is believed to be in billions of Leones.
A report by the UK-based news agency, Reuters, last week quoted a document from the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources stating that revenue from mining dropped from $2.24 million in April 2019 to just $ 0.33 million in April 2020 - an 85% decline year on year.
Despite the grim figures, the Commissioner General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Dr Samuel Gibao, said the loss is not as bad on their revenue collection as it might appear.
Dr Gibao said in the first quarter of the year the NRA collected Le23 billion daily and that that had now dropped in the start of the second quarter to just Le 21.7 billion daily.
“Yes, mining revenue is going down and the COVID-19 has not helped, but because of the less dependency over the last two years on the mining sector, we have not seen significant drop. I am not saying revenue has not dropped, but the magnitude that we were expecting [it] is actually not occurring,” Dr Gibao said.
Copyright © 22/05/20 Politico Online
