The Minister of Finance Jacob Jusu Saffa on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone on Friday 3rd April 2020 signed two grant financing agreements for the COVID-19 response and to strengthen Sierra Leone’s statistical system. The grant of $30m is a new World Bank funding project benefiting seven West African countries to harmonize and strengthen the statistics system in the respective countries.
The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the statistics systems of participating countries and regional bodies in Africa to produce, disseminate and enhance the use of core economic and social statistics for policy decision making. Also, the World Bank approved a US$7.5 million International Development Association (IDA) grant to help Sierra Leone respond to the threat posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness.
In her statement, the World Bank Country Manager Gayle Martin commended Sierra Leone for staying at zero for almost three months since the outbreak entered Africa, noting that the World Bank is committed to use its operational and policy instruments and to work with partners in helping in the prevention of the spread of the virus in the country. Giving an overview of his ministry’s interventions in the fight against the virus, the Minister of Health and Sanitation Professor Alpha Tejan Wurie reaffirms the government’s commitment to the fight against COVID-19. “Contract tracing for both primary and secondary contacts for the two confirmed cases is underway,” he said.
He commends the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank for its interventions even before the outbreak in Sierra Leone. Furthermore, the Minister of Finance Jacob Jusu Saffa commended the swift nature of World Bank response, adding that the $7.5 million grant will serve as a catalyst to other development partners to come on board to support government’s fight against the virus.
