ECONOMY-SIERRA LEONE: Donors Expected To Follow The EU Example

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Nov 27 1998 (IPS) - More donors will be encouraged to follow the European Union (EU) which granted 210 billion leones (one US Dollar is equal to 1,700 leones) for Sierra Leone’s post- war reconstruction efforts, a top EU official has said.

Perez Porras, who is the EU Representative in Sierra Leone, said this week that the grant will serve as proof that the EU and the international community have confidence in the government’s ability to make good use of the funds.

This is the first time that the West African nation has received a major foreign aid boost since President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah was returned to office in February.

Finance minister, James Jonah, who signed the grant on behalf of the government this week, urged Sierra Leone’s 4.8 million people to make good use of the money.

“We cannot continue to rely on international aid,” Jonah said. “Sierra Leoneans must know that we are going to build our country only through hard work.”

The signing of the grant was a result of a meeting held in London in July at which Jonah stressed the urgency of EU financial assistance to Sierra Leone.

The strife-torn country has had its entire revenue-generating base blockaded by a seven-year civil war with rebels in the eastern gold and diamond-producing areas, as well as northern Sierra Leone, which forms the agro-industrial base of the country.

The rebellion has prevented the government from generating income from the mining and agricultural sectors, which both account for more than 70 percent of gross domestic product. At present, the government depends on aid from donor countries.

The situation was worsened by a nine-month military/rebel alliance, which saw the plundering of the nation’s coffers. The banks and all major financial institutions were completely looted by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), the junta which overthrew the civilian government of Kabbah in May 1997.

At the end of July, a special conference on Sierra Leone was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, at which financial pledges were made by representatives of government and non-governmental organisations (ngos).

Britain, which ruled Sierra Leone until independence in 1961, pledged about six million US Dollars for the country’s disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (ddr) programme and also for logistical assistance to the West African Peacekeeping Force ‘ECOMOG’.

The United States pledged 55 million Dollars and several other countries also made pledges.

The head of the West African Department of the EU, Anna-Silva Piergrossi, who signed the grant with Jonah, said the funds will be used for institutional support, rehabilitation and development of the social sector, destroyed by the civil war.

“These loans would be discontinued if the general principle of respect for human rights, adherence to the rule of law and good governance are not maintained,” he warned.

The co-operation between Sierra Leone and the EU dates back to the signing of the Lome Convention in the 1960s. “Since those early days,” she said, “the amount allocated to Sierra Leone has substantially increased, from 32.5 million ECU under Lome One, to 111.5 million ECU.”

When the government of Kabbah was overthrown in May 1997, the EU not only suspended all forms of co-operation with the military regime, but also continued to give formal recognition to, and maintain political dialogue with the civilian administration in exile.

The EU also has responded to the request by the government to strenghten the capacity of the ministry of finance, development and economic planning, to cope with the large financing gap in the country’s import budget.

Economists and financial analysts in Freetown have attributed the EU’s resumption of grant to Jonah, a former UN official, who enjoys the confidence of the donor community.

Jonah recently charmed the donors when he busted a corruption syndicate that yielded the government a total of 800 million leones.