Focus for the future is firmly on the private sector
Ministers aim to attract investment and boost small businesses to reduce dependence on aid

Freetown, capital city of a nation embarking on economic development and the road to self-reliance

As a developing country, Sierra Leone will continue to depend on assistance from the donor countries for the foreseeable future. The government believes that helping private enterprise to flourish is the only way of creating an economy less reliant on handouts.

Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group's International Development Association (IDA) agreed to support a comprehensive debt reduction package for the country under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Total relief from all of Sierra Leone’s creditors is worth nearly $950 million—equivalent to 80 percent of the nation’s total outstanding debt.
This enables the government to increase expenditure on education, health, and rural development. It should also contribute towards improving living standards for the most vulnerable, including returned refugees and war victims, by providing them with income-generating activities and better social services.

The government of Sierra Leone says it is well aware that, in the longer term, the primary responsibility for the economic and social development of the nation rests in the hands of its people. “We cannot continue to depend
entirely on foreign aid,” says Minister of Finance Joseph Dauda. “We will have to begin to reduce our dependency on donors’ handouts. When you look at the economy, we have all the resources. We can definitely embark on economic development.”
The private sector is expected to play a key role and will be closely involved in an ongoing consultation process with the government on development priorities.

Kadi Sesay, Minister of Trade and Industry, says, “We appreciate what our partners have done because without them it would have been difficult for this country to survive, but for the country to be able to develop and stand on its own feet we need to concentrate on the private sector.
“We need to create jobs, we need to have skills training and to develop industries that sell not only within Sierra Leone but in the sub-region, in the rest of Africa and in the developed world.”

SOLOMON BEREWA Vice President of Sierra Leone

KADI SESAY Minister of Trade and Industry

SEPTIMUS KAIKAI Minister of Information

Ministers are examining ways of encouraging inward investment and have been drawing up an investment code which they hope to see passed into law by the end of the year.
A privatization commission is being set up and a variety of public sector organizations will be considered for privatization, joint ventures or management contracting out. “We are trying to offload some of the economic activities the government is carrying out because we believe that at the end of the day it is the private sector that should really have the predominant role in the economy,” says Mr. Dauda.

Professor Septimus Kaikai, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, reinforces the point. “This is an investment-friendly government. We are relying on the private sector to bring about the change that we need to have in this country. There is very little interference on the part of government in the day-to-day running of private enterprises and that will continue. We want to give them a free hand.”
Encouragement and assistance, including a micro-credit financing scheme, is helping small and medium-sized businesses to grow. “We need to enhance the ability of small-scale business people,” Mr. Dauda says.

“The initial line we have decided to take is to introduce a micro-credit system to encourage the poor, mostly women, to go into small-scale trading to be able to earn something to improve upon their standard of living and eventually to build up the rural economy.”
Sierra Leone’s Vice President Solomon Berewa emphasizes the country’s potential.
“We want to get back to the days when Sierra Leone was prosperous. Our country is rich and fertile, we have a lot of rainfall and sunshine. We have the potential for tourism and we have a lot of minerals.”