The Chief Economist of the Ministry of Finance in Sierra Leone, Alimamy Bangura, has said that over two hundred million is used just to support the private sector to import fuel in all the national gas stations in the country.

He made this disclosure during a well-attended press briefing in the Ministry of Health conference room to Journalists organised by the Ministry of Information and Communication in Freetown.

He stated, “over two hundred million Leones was expended just to support the private sector to import fuel so that we have fuel in all the gas stations”.

He explained that the Health expenditure is mostly funded by donors which were initially 6% but are now 10% and he said that would later exceed 50% as they continue.

In half of this year 2022, they were able to get a surplus in the country’s domestic revenue collection.

Because of the ongoing global challenges such as Ukraine and Covid-19, he noted even other countries could not support them because of their constraints.

The Chief Economist mentioned that the budget presented will serve after the 2023 elections stating “If you look at the development plan allocations to the budgets is line by line.

The first cluster is human capital development; the Second cluster-Economic diversification and the third cluster is Infrastructure and goes like this. So, am assuming that after the elections this budget will continue to serve this purpose”.

He further highlighted the key priorities of the SDI expenditure expended on EDSA’s operational activities because they could not cover their cost of operations; Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education(MBSSE) school feeding programmes, Ministry of Health and Agriculture have been some priorities in the SDI budget line among few.