In Sierra Leone, almost everyone you talk to these days complains about high running costs of foodstuffs as precipitated by hyper-inflation on the economy.
Currently, the USD $ is bought at about Le 2,070.00 (Two Thousand and Seventy Leones) and sold at 2,100.00 ( Two Thousand One Hundred Leones).
As a result, prices of basic essentials are increasing exponentially, making life completely difficulty for the poor. Middle income earners are also caught by the prey of inflation as high cost on fuel products also places heavy burden on them.
As things get tough and tougher, the toughest times are less a month to happen when the US dollar is expected to speedily rise to about two thousand one hundred Leones.
“The US dollar rises every week like a sugar in the market. That is making goods to go up and up daily,” alarmed a cloth seller at Abacha Street in Freetown.
The sad phenomenon is griping hard on Sierra Leoneans as the standard of living becomes difficult for the masses, the have-nots.
The pressure on the leone currency seems to be badly affecting unemployed youths in Freetown.
“ [ Boss] I tell you Le 10,000 cannot buy you a single plate of cooked rice” said a youth who lives at Brookfields.
As government announced policies to abate the inflation fails to bear fruits, Sierra Leoneans say President Bio needs to step down. “He has woefully failed us,” they say.
The people need food on the table but there are no rice farms and the imported food is not in abundance to feed the many.
Mr. Bio had told the people of this country that he would ensure that ministers have farms on their own as a method to suppress hunger all over during his 2018 election campaign trips.
But now as his term is almost over hunger is all over in Sierra Leone, in the city and in the provinces. Election to choose the next man in State House is just barely three months to go. Sierra Leoneans will go to the polls on June 24.
President Maada Bio is running his first-five year term in office. He is pushing hard to reclaim victory come June polls. The retired soldier is tactical as he explores new tactics to renew his ‘social contract’ with Sierra Leoneans. President Maada Bio is hoping to defeat any of his counterparts in the next polls to solidify his authority in the state. Mr. Bio still banks on his free education flagship project and a few of the roads he had built in Kono, Moyamba. He has launched a well-refurbished airport to add on his campaign plate.
But he scores terribly on food stability and the economy. The economy is in shambles!
Seeking to ameliorate its crisis which is ridden by corruption allegations reports revealed by external monitors, President Bio has entrusted his bank governor to have rebooted the economy, thereby suppressing the US dollar against the domestic currency.
But all attempts by Sierra Leone’s Bank governor, Prof. Keifala Kallon, then, to get things better for the nation boomeranged on the economy.
The glimmer of hope for a boom in Sierra Leone’s economy now shines on Dr. Samura Kamara if he became the next President of Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leoneans see him as a beacon of hope for the nation. This is because Dr. Samura is not only a politician but a farmer as well. He has been growing gigantic farm in the countryside.
The seasoned economist and development expert, Dr. Samura Kamara, has been spending his time more on growing rice crop, the staple food in the country.
Outside politics, he employs his clansmen at his gritty village, Kamalo, in Karena district, north of Sierra Leone.
The politician dreams to boost peasant farmers with modern implements and to invest more on agriculture.
So, he is a man of nobility who most Sierra Leoneans think he could revive the withered economy.