There is no doubt about the stark reality of the economic woe hunting Sierra Leone for quite some time. Despite the fact of glimpse of global crises that has culminated into crippling economic disaster in many countries in the world, seemingly emanating from ills of covid-19 and the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war, yet, some countries have carved out plausible solutions while Sierra Leone is at great sea, as the situation continue to get worsen and life becomes hard, nauseating and meaningless to many which is why some have resorted to seeking out greener pastures in other countries.

The continuous clamouring of our sisters in some Arab countries, the dangerous venture of our brothers in the great sea who risk to enter Europe, the increasing numbers of sex workers in the country, the alarming spate of corruption, armed robbery coupled with high rate of drug addiction and other related crimes are all traces of precarious living condition.

Realistically, many citizens are despondent over the way the ruling SLPP government has been handling the bread and butter issue which has stagnated all facets of life in the country.

The fact of the matter is President Bio himself has many times acknowledged the difficult situation in the country but many pundits cast blame on him for failing to put workable measures in place that will remove them from what they referred to as dungeon. Many Sierra Leoneans believe that the government needs to indulge into radical actions such as to put a moratorium on the operation of all foreign exchange bureaus including black market dealers that have flooded the country.

Before now, government issued a press release on black market operators but the implementation has never happened. The simple economic theory connotes that, the scarcity of commodity will precipitate the high price and the more the commodity the lower the price.

Simply put, because of the scarcity of foreign currencies, such as the almighty dollar, and the British pound, prices are bound to be high. And one of the factors is the proliferation of foreign exchange bureaus and black market dealers in the country.

Business people have the foreign currencies in their homes. Ask the Fullahs, Indians, Lebanese, Nigerians and other business people in the country, they will tell the millions of foreign currencies they have that the banks will never dream of having.

In, fact some bank managers will never be happy for such radical steps because some are party to our endless predicaments to enrich themselves at the detriment of the general masses. There is no doubt if there is no other outlet to get foreign currencies except the banks the problems will be surely solved. Even if government deposits billions of U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies at the central bank and other commercial banks, they will remove all of them and hoard them at their homes to do business.

Government also needs to do more for radical tax reduction on certain commodities and create a special taskforce charged with the responsibility of constant monitoring of prices of our products such as charcoal which is now one hundred thousand old leones per bag, palm oil, seven hundred thousand old leones per jerry can (five gallon) pepper is six hundred thousand leones per bag and many more.

As the adage says charity begins at home; meaning before we talk about prices of foreign products, we need to control ours first and to demonstrate to importers that we are serious about the escalation of prices of commodities in the country.