By: Juliana Vandy
Strategic Communications Unit -MoICE
The Chief Minister of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr David Moinina Sengeh, on Tuesday 7th January 2024, at the weekly government press briefing at the Miatta Conference Centre, Youyi Building, Freetown, updated journalists on progress made in the past year and what citizens should expect from government in 2025.
According to him, in 2024 the government made significant progress, citing the Salone Civic Festival which he described as one of the best things that happened in Sierra Leone.
He said the festival brought together citizens of all categories and government officials, serving as a platform for them to interact on the achievements and challenges of government in the past year as well as progress made in the implementation of President Bio’s Big Five agenda.
He furthered that government was able to attract into the country a number of direct foreign investments in an effort to expand industries to cater for the local market, reduce importation and create jobs.
Dr Sengeh revealed that last year the Government of Sierra Leone also received an investment commitment worth over $1billion through the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) and other sources.
He said that the MCC fund will be used to improve access to electricity that will in turn attract more investments to create more jobs for Sierra Leoneans.
He underscored that this investment will not come into the pockets or purses of government officials but will be expended through implementing partners tasked with executing the project to ensure Sierra Leone gets adequate power supply.
He mentioned that other companies such as Miro at Mile 91 received direct investments from the British worth tens of millions of dollars, which has provided a lot of job opportunities for young people in that part of the country.
Dr. Sengeh further disclosed that Sierra Leone is one of the biggest recipients per capita of funds under the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), an independent agency in the United States that partners with the private sector to address economic challenges in developing countries. He noted that this investment will be going directly into the pockets and purses of ordinary citizens through access to jobs during the installation of the electricity infrastructure in the east end of Freetown.
Speaking about the economy, he said the construction of the new airport has seen a huge influx of passengers and flights which has improved the country’s tax revenue. He added that the exchange rate has also stabilized for the past year based on good macro-economic policy, among others.
He touched on several other governance issues including the successful cross party peace dialogue and the brilliant job done by the security sector in ensuring a safe and secure environment for normal life to thrive.
When asked what citizens should expect from the government in 2025, Chief Minister David Moinina Sengeh responded by describing this year as ‘a year of delivery and bold action”.
