Business And Economy

By Tanu Jalloh

When the new minister of water resources was on Radio Democracy’s breakfast show on Tuesday 19 March this year, he said the country needed well over US$ 200 Million to fix the decaying water supply systems in the country.

Momodu Maligi’s comments were a sort of correction or reaction to the interviewer’s assertion that the ministry would need close to the amount, apparently suggesting that the money was too much. At least that was indicative of his sounding jeering behind the microphone.

By Tanu Jalloh

The Petroleum Unit (PU), which falls under the control of the Trade and Industry ministry, is responsible for downstream petroleum activities—refining to marketing, although there is currently no refining. It is the regulatory body for the oil marketing companies (OMCs) who import and wholesale to distributors petrol, diesel, kerosene and heavy fuel (used for generating electricity).

By Tanu Jalloh

In my last article on this page I looked at the World Bank’s annual rankings of Doing Businessand what was Sierra Leone doing on those scalessince 2008. However, in that article I deliberately just laid the records or statistics bare andwithout any accompanying analyses, just so that a forum is created to tell a detailed story today.

By Tanu Jalloh

While investments and business generally seem to have boomed in the last five years and with prospects to grow in the coming year, 2013, the economy, which is supposed to be the driving force behind all of this, might have the deuce of a time getting there.

Before buying gold dust in Sierra Leone, please take a moment to read this warning!

The U.S. embassy in Freetown warns all Americans engaging in gold dust transactions in Sierra Leone to exercise extreme caution before handing over any money.

The authorities agreed with the staff assessment that monetary policy remains sufficiently tight to achieve the programmed inflation target.