The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 2024 approved a new financial loan scheme to Sierra Leone government totalling US$253 million.

It is a 38-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement for Sierra Leone.

“This ECF Programme aims to support restoring stability through continued macroeconomic adjustment to address debt vulnerabilities, reduce inflation, and rebuild international reserves; bolster inclusive growth and poverty reduction through structural reforms and targeted social spending; and revitalise the reform agenda to strengthen governance and institutions in advancing the poverty reduction and growth aspirations outlined in the country’s Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2024-30,” IMF partners noted.

On a follow-up to the agreed reforms and structural adjustments in order to achieve the objective of the ECF programme, officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission, have recently engaged the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Sierra Leone, and the National Revenue Authority (NRA) on Monday, January 27th, 2025 to discuss progress, challenges, and and to chat a way forward in implementing the agreed reforms.

On the meeting held at the office of the Accountant General (AG), the Minister of Finance Kadiatu Allie welcomed representatives of IMF.

IMF’s Chief Mission Christian Saborowski commended the government for taking bold and concrete steps to implement the agreed reforms.

He outlined issues around the guidelines issued out such as roads budget, costs and the list of roads, and on governance and corruption diagnostic, which he said, are the three outstanding structural benchmarks which the mission will discuss extensively by May this year.

The Chief Mission person Christian Saborowski further commended the government for the drop in inflation and the stability of the exchange rate in the country and promised to further engage the relevant government officials to discuss and find solutions for the implementation of the reforms they had agreed on to doing.

The Deputy Minister of Finance 1, Kadiatu Allie, thanked the IMF Mission Team for all the issues raised at the meeting.

She noted that the debt service and arrears on electricity keep taking a huge amount of the domestic revenue.

She reiterates the government’s commitment to implementing reforms in order to improve the country’s economy.

The Bank Governor, Dr Ibrahim Stevens, explained that his work as a bank governor is to provide economic stability, which, since he assumed office within eighteen months, has been able to reduce inflation to 13.78%.

The Financial Secretary Matthew Dingie explained that talks on issues raised on budgeting and  roads costs are in progress. And that the government has been working with a selected individuals from IMF together with the budget Director, and he believes no issues are left around on that again.

The Financial Secretary encouraged the team to discuss all issues being raised in order to know in detail how to address them for a smooth implementation of the programme.

©️MOF Communications