Finance Minister signs $75m World Bank budget support
SIERRA LEONE, Freetown: Minister of Finance Dennis K. Vandi has signed the disbursement of the World Bank Budget Support of $75 million under the First Sustainable and Growth Facility financing programme.
The signing took place on Friday 17th December 2021 in which Minister Vandi expressed delight over the approval of this year’s budget support by the Board of the Bank, whilst appreciating the World Bank Country team, especially the World Bank Country Manager for overseeing the successful conclusion of the reform measures.
The Minister furthered that Sierra Leone benefited $100 million in 2020 from the World Bank under the Productivity and Transparency Support Credit. This disbursement he said supported reforms in various sectors of the economy, including support towards the creation of a Seed Certification Agency, the National Fertilizer Regulatory Agency, as well as reforms in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning.
He added that, for this year, Government and the World Bank negotiated an amount of $75 million as budget support under the First Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Facility. “This is intended to support reforms in various sectors of the economy that led to the development of the following Bills which have been tabled before Parliament for enactment. The Gender and Equality Bill, The Land Commission Bill, The Customary Land Right Bill, the Mines, and Mineral Bill, The Electronic Payment System and The National Switch Bill” he said.
In conclusion he reiterated their commitment to continued reform implementations that is aimed at improving governance, fiscal sustainability, and transparency in the use of national resources.
World Bank Country Manager Abdu Muwonge said the Board’s approval is focussed on programmes in the National Development Plan under the Human Capital Development and Growth.
He said that the reforms are in critical areas that will stimulate growth in the areas of lands, mining, and sectors that will improve inclusiveness in education, gender and payment systems, improvement in the quality of transparency and governance in areas of procurement, and improving the efficiency in state-owned enterprises.
The Country Manager explained that this year’s total commitment from the World Bank is $263 million of which this $75M is the highest, stating that this is a huge accomplishment of the Bank’s support to Government. Besides the $75m, the Board also approved $60m towards improving health outcomes in the provinces, additional COVID-19 financing of $18.1m.
“We are on track as far this financial year is concerned, Hon. Minister, my team is working on three other projects social safety net $40m, Land administration project $40m, and the digital transformation projects $40m” he added.
He called on the government through the Ministry of Finance to monitor the implementation of the reforms and ensure that the outcomes are archived.
Financial Secretary Sahr Lahai Jusu committed to ensuring that the grant is utilised to improve the life of the people of Sierra Leone. He also assured other government agencies that the ministry of finance will fund programmes and projects towards achieving the outcomes of the program. ZIJ/19/12/2021