The 2018 and 2023 presidential flagbearer for the All Peoples Congress party (APC), Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara has disclosed that the country is currently grappling with a high debt burden with total external speedily increasing from $1.5 billion in 2018 to $1.9 billion in 2022 and this he said has worsened the budget deficit with an increasing need to for borrowing externally.

Speaking during the launching ceremony of his ‘One Nation’ Manifesto at the Lagoonda complex at Mamba Point, Aberdeen, west of Freetown, Dr. Samura Kamara said domestic debt has drastically increased from NLe8.9 billion in 2018 to NLe16.0 billion in 2022 and which he stated represented an unprecedented increase of over 80% and also exposing the country’s commercial banks to severe and open risk.

He furthered that the debt to Gross domestic product has risen non-stop from 68.7% in 2018 to 93% in 2022, just five years elapsed after the transition of government, adding that these unprecedented figures have landed the nation into high level debt distress surrounded by a weak financial sector with lack of access to international capital market.

The APC flagbearer continued that the country’s economy has collapsed as Sierra Leone now faces a fiscal dilemma as expenditure is high, revenue generation low and debt on a daily upsurge, adding that inflation has increased from 15.3% in 2017 to 37.1% in 2022 and reaching at 43% in February 2023. He added that conservative estimates indicate 50% increment in the cost of food items like rice, onions, palm-oil and basic social services over the past few months with an unwavering increase of 176% since the APC party left power 2018.

The experienced and seasoned Technocrat Economist, Dr. Samura Kamara said if elected as president, his government will restore macroeconomic stability and work towards transforming the economy from consumption to a competitive productive economy, adding that it will include the prioritization of the private sector development especially indigenous businesses and rural communities. He added that his government will leverage the African Intercontinental Free Trade Area Agreement and other trade agreements by harnessing the potential of digital transformation.