The new Finance Minister Dr. Samura Kamara has remarked that the present economic situation in the World will be making it difficult for dependent countries like Sierra Leone.
The new Minister was responding to probing questions from the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments and Public Service where he remarked that Sierra Leone is still dependent on foreign private investments and also dependent on donor resources and a country where development infrastructures are still in a state of reconstruction, adding that we will be finding it difficult this year.
Dr. Samura Kamara said the micro-economic and financial sector were under strain as the banks were operating under strenuous conditions, the credit crunch certainly beginning to affect private investments in the country. “It is going to be a very difficult period for all of us but that notwithstanding, we are guided by the President’s agenda for change which has now been articulated in to the second edition of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)” he said. The Finance Minister assured the parliamentarians that every effort was being made to reposition the financial sector so as to be able to withstand the pressures. He however said the Central Bank, where he was the Bank Governor explaining that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank have a shared responsibility in the management of the economy.