Sierra Leone Telegraph: 17 March 2022:
Price of dwelling in Sierra Leone has been spiralling uncontrolled in the previous couple of years, fuelling rising poverty and early deaths, regardless of the federal government claiming to be doing all it will probably to show the financial system round. (Picture above – President Julius Maada Bio).
Since coming to energy in 2018, President Bio has presided over a 100% improve in the price of gas and different fundamental family commodities, as the worth of the Leone towards international currencies fall by over forty p.c.
This morning, the individuals of Sierra Leone woke as much as an enormous rise in gas costs from Twelve Thousand Leones to Fifteen Thousand Leones a Litre.
Price of public transport has additionally gone up by Hundreds of Leones in some circumstances, sparking an instantaneous hike in meals costs in addition to different commodities.
The capital Freetown has been in fixed darkness for a number of months as electrical energy outage turns into the brand new regular underneath the Bio-led authorities.
The federal government says that the most recent rise in gas costs is the results of international provide chain issues as a result of Covid pandemic and the struggle in Ukraine.
However critics aren’t shopping for the federal government’s clarification. They’re accusing the federal government of gross mismanagement, incompetence and corruption in excessive locations.
President Bio and several other of his ministers are at the moment in Vietnam, one of many world’s largest producers of rice – Sierra Leone’s staple meals.
Tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} claimed by the federal government to have been invested in rice farming since 2018, have yielded little or no rice manufacturing within the nation.
With presidential and common elections simply fifteen months away, the President is attempting to make sure that voters don’t go to the polls in empty stomachs. He’s believed to be negotiating enormous consignment of rice provides from Vietnam to reach in time for the 24 June 2023 elections. However what’s going to the President give to Vietnam in return?
