By Mustapha Kamara
Parliament on Tuesday ratified a financial grant agreement of over $ 99 million between Sierra Leone and the International Development Association (IDA) scale up response against the Ebola in the country.
Speaking in parliament, finance minister, Dr. Kaifala Marah, explained the grant of US$ 99, 450,000 followed an appeal made by President Ernest Koroma for urgent assistance to end the Ebola outbreak in the country.
He said the “additional emergency grant” was an addendum to the financing grant agreement of the US$28 million that was ratified by Parliament in September to finance the Ebola emergency response project.
He stated that the project was aimed at contributing, on a short term basis, to the control of the Ebola outbreak in the country and to strengthen essential healthcare services.
Dr. Marah said the project also aimed at “developing human resources for outbreak response, providing food and basic essential services to quarantined populations and to the Ebola affected areas”. He said the grant would also be used to provide public services and pre-investment assessment for acceleration of Ebola prevention, treatment and preparedness.
House Minority Leader, Dr Bernadette Lahai said there were still huge challenges in the fight against the Ebola disease “amidst the huge support and grants from international partners”.
She said a good number of people were still not adhering to medical and socio-cultural advice to help break the chain of transmission and stop the spread of the disease. She pointed out that there was still the problem of “attitude and indiscipline”, adding that if Sierra Leone was to beat Ebola, people needed to adhere to medical advice.
© Politico 04
