IFAD donates two vehicles to BSL

IFAD yesterday donated two vehicles and an assortment of office equipment to the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) as support to the central bank’s inclusive financial campaign targeting the rural poor in Sierra Leone.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony held at the old Bank of Sierra Leone building Siaka Stevens Street in Freetown, Tejan Kellah who headed the IFAD presentation team said the “donation” aims at meeting the core objects and goals which is to support rural poverty reduction goals closely aligned with the Millennium Development Goals by supporting agriculture as the ‘engine’ of socio-economic growth.
Lack of access to Financial Services is an impediment to enhanced productivity and growth in the agricultural sector. To achieve increased food production, access to finance and expertise is crucial hence the partnership between the central bank which oversees financial intermediation in Sierra Leone and IFAD under the Rural Finance and Community Improvement Programme.
The programme supports the creation of financial service associations (FSA) so far numbering 42 and also supports rural community banks. The goal is to promote the adoption of best
practices in rural microfinance models as tools for poverty reduction.
The vehicles will directly support efforts within Central Bank’s Financial Sector Development Plan formulated to strengthen and contribute to improve efficiency in financial intermediation, promote financial sector stability, reduce transaction costs of money transfer and expand access to financial services. Receiving the donation on behalf of the Central Bank, Tapsiru Lamin Dainkeh Director of Banking Supervision expressed appreciation to IFAD. He described the support as a budgetary “relief” and that resource which could have gone to procure the donated items “can be allocated to other priority areas.” Since the organization initiated its first project in the country in 1980, IFAD has provided a total of US$ 78.7 million in financing for six loans and three grants for programmes and projects with a total cost of US$144.8 million.