9th October, 2013
Prior to his present appointment as Minister of Trade and Industries, Alhaji Osman Gboie Kamara was a presidential aspirant of the opposition party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party, SLPP. He broke ranks and joined the ruling All People’s Congress, APC government. A man of diverse outlook and with a wide followership, particularly the youths, Alhaji Osman Gboie Kamara is, indeed, a political gladiator of immense value to the Koroma-led administration. He spoke to ABUBAKAR HASHIM on the Trade and Industrial development in the country. Excerpts:
What is the level of trade and industrial development in Sierra Leone?
Trade and industrial development are critical to the development of the Sierra Leone economy. Together, they play a crucial role in reducing poverty as they directly affect the poor’s levels of income and employment, and the prices they face as both consumers and producers. Trade can also affect poverty indirectly by stimulating economic growth and its linkage effects and dynamic process, and through the impact on government revenues and expenditures that affect the poor. Recognising this, the Government of Sierra Leone has made promotion of trade a core aspect of its Vision and its poverty-reduction strategy.
Our industrial sector is also plagued by insufficient industrial and sub-contracting services, difficult access to efficient technologies, a small domestic market with limited purchasing power, and lack of reliable information on market opportunities in the sub-region. Support for small and medium enterprises and industries and the informal sector has also been either lacking or inadequate. These are supposed to be the engines of growth and the key drivers enabling the expansion of the industrial production base, strengthening of civil society and facilitating the emergence of local entrepreneurs.
To address the above issues, the government has made tremendous strides in providing the enabling environment, including policy and legislative reforms, as well as providing easier access to finance particularly for the small and medium scale enterprise, which form a large percentage of the country’s productive base. The general objective of government’s trade and industrial policies is to accelerate industrialisation through the promotion of endogenous industrial transformation of local raw materials, the development and diversification of industrial productive capacity, strengthening of regional cooperation, and the export of manufactured goods.
What is government’s position on providing an enabling environment for the promotion of SMEs?
The Ministry of Trade and Industry is charged with the responsibility to promote private sector development, improve the investment climate and encourage the expansion and diversification of exports. It is also responsible for developing policies and programmes with the purpose of stimulating local and export trade as well as increasing investment and economic growth.
In order to achieve this, the Government of Sierra Leone has put in place several policies and strategies with a view to ensuring that the Small and Medium scale Enterprises, SMEs, which form a large percentage of the country’s production base, have a level playing field to operate. An example of such policies includes the private sector development strategy which was designed to provide expert advice and implementation support to the Ministry of Trade and Industry to develop and implement a comprehensive Private Sector Development Plan.
The Private Sector Development Strategy is focusing on increasing access to affordable finance for SMEs. This Ministry is also trying to encourage small businesses to register. Over the years, the Ministry in collaboration with the Soros Foundation Economic Development Fund has organized several business plan competition known as Business Bomba Competition.
ECOWAS Protocol provides for free movement of personnel and concession on Goods and Services among member countries. How effective is this Protocol?
The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, ETLS, is the main ECOWAS operational tool for promoting the West Africa region as a Free Trade Area. This lies in tandem with one of the objectives of the community, which is the establishment of a common market through “the liberalisation of trade by the abolition, among Member States, of customs duties levied on imports and exports, and the abolition among Member States, of non-tariff” barriers in line with Article 3 of ECOWAS Treaty and the ECOWAS Protocol A/PI/I/03 of 31st January 2003. It is however worthy of note that all goods produced in any Special Economic Zone or Economic Processing Zones are not entitled to benefit from this Scheme, in line with Article 7 of the ECOWAS Protocol.
In order to ensure compliance with the ECOWAS provisions on the ETLS, all Member States are required to establish a National Approvals Committee, NAC, on the ETLS and Trade Facilitation comprising key trade-related institutions. In the case of Sierra Leone, the establishment of the NAC was approved by Cabinet
How does the future look for trade and investment in Sierra Leone?
Any assessment of Sierra Leone as a potential site for investment must consider this small nation’s two omnipresent challenges. The devastation of the 1991-2002 civil war and the daunting challenge of extreme poverty continue to fundamentally impact almost all aspects of Sierra Leone society. After the war, international focus on Sierra Leone brought considerable foreign and programmes. The Sierra Leone economy today remains dependent on foreign aid, but donors, facing their own economic challenges, are beginning to reduce their programmes. The result is, Sierra Leone is being forced to move beyond the moniker of a post-war nation to one of nascent self-sufficiency. This is an uncomfortable transition for institutions fundamentally fuelled by the largess of foreign donors. Institutional structures, both government and private, continue to develop, but remain immature and are generally characterised by poor government and corruption.
These considerable challenges notwithstanding, there are encouraging signs in Sierra Leone’s investment climate. Foremost among them is what seems to be a sincere and determined priority among national leadership to boost the market economy. The Government of Sierra Leone, GoSL, continues to work to improve the integration of the private sector to advance modern technologies, into the mining and agricultural development strategies as well as to continue to build the industrial base to create more jobs. The mining sector seems to be moving forward, with iron ore production beginning in earnest at the end of 2011.
The largest road construction project in Sierra Leone’s history is ongoing in Freetown under the management of the China Railway Seventh Group Corporation.