President Julius Maada Bio together with his Minister of Finance Sheku Fantamadi Bangura met with Executives from the International Monetary Fund at State House.

The IMF team is in Freetown as part of the ongoing process of reviewing the country’s 6th and 7th programmes.

State House said the IMF had already approved the said programmes under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement. The credit means that Sierra Leone could benefit from the final disbursement of the facility and a waiver grant from the Executive Board for the non-observance of the quantitative performance criterion on the domestic primary fiscal balance of the central government.

President Bio, speaking at the meeting, expressed their commitment to IMF recommendations.

“When we took over governance, this country was out of programme, but we were able to undertake certain reforms and show commitment enough to convince you within seven months to get us back on track,” the President said.

He started that most could not predict the current economic situation facing the world but added his administration has shown fiscal discipline with regards revenue mobilisation.

“I want to assure that we are fully committed to the IMF programme, but the nature of what we are going to capture in the review,” Bio said.

The Executive Director of the IMF, Willie Nakunyada appreciated the president for his government’s commitment and political will to the IMF and stressed that the review process is timely while citing recent economic upheavals.

He said the many shocks from the pandemic and spillovers from the war in Ukraine has affected many of their countries. He said that these shocks have resulted in inflation of food, fuel and other energy sources.

“But I am delighted that this discussion is proceeding to set a strong foundation for this review and also for subsequent IMF engagements,” the IMF Executive Director said.

He admonished the government to ensure that the fiscal discipline and generation of adequate revenue flows be on a sustainable path.