By Ragan M. Conteh

The opposition Member of Parliament from Port Loko District, Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara, has informed members in the House of Representatives that like other district, they are crying for development.

He decried and raised concern over what he called policy slippages and advised the Government to stop them.

He requested for the estimate of the Budget and raised serious concerns over the actual specific vote heads and sub-votes in light of the variance in budgetary allocations. He said the budget relies hugely on domestic revenue mobilization, and so the MP denounced the Government reliance on taxation.

Regarding the contribution of State own enterprises to the Budget, he said, it is critical to advance the promotion of economic diversification.

Making his submissions, the Chairman of Finance Committee, Hon. Francis Amara Kai-Samba from Kenema District, thanked the Ministry of Finance and others for putting the document together. He applauded the Ministry for stabilizing the Financial Year 2024 and commended the National Revenue Authority (NRA) for exceeding their targets.

The Chairman explained some of the merits of the 2025 Budget.

“We are having a larger economy now”, he said. He spoke about the Government priority projects including the intention to expand agriculture for economic growth.

He recalled on several failed agricultural projects by previous governments and said that it was timely for the nation to ensure its Agriculture and Food Security ministry boost crops produce by 2025.

He informed the House about some improvement on rice production and reduction in cost in Tonkolili District mainly due to the effort of Government.

He said large scale agriculture and diversification will remedy the problem of food unavailability in Sierra Leone.

The Chairman spoke positively about the commitment of Government on education, road construction, and decentralization of universities, energy expansion, water resources and employment especially among youth.