Ernest Koroma Runs Salone as a Business
When in 2007 Ernest Koroma won the ticket to administer Sierra Leone as a state under the All People’s Congress flagship, one thing he made more than clear was that his administration was going to be different from the then SLPP Kabbah Government, he was going to run the country as a business and not the diplomacy and donor base system that embodied the Kabbah Regime.
This determination in Koroma to change the modus operandi of the system of things in state governance was what hatched the now popular government policy know as the ‘Agenda for Change.’ The agenda for change means that the administration of state and national affairs will not be dependent on donor agencies who over the years have made little or no impact in the way of growth and development of the country, despite the many million of dollars of acclaimed aid that has been given to the country for the past decade and half.
Not much people actually saw the angle from where the first gentleman of the country was coming from when he pledged to run Sierra Leone as a business; but the truth is, the message is becoming apparent, it is beginning to be clear to all and sundry as the business acumen of the Koroma and few of his committed people come into play.
It has been six years since the war ended and is more than clear that we are now in the midst of donor fatigue and we therefore could not depend on what we are given as charity for there is no such cause for charity anymore. Despite that, it has been more than apparent that much cannot actually be done with donor monies because of the many strings and conditions that come alongside them.
If then the Koroma agenda for change means that the country and state will achieve considerable financial and economic independence, then it is obvious that it means well and by the way things are going, it is only fair to say that the gentleman is on the right patch owing to the series of foundations he is presently putting in place to ensure that his dream to transform the country’s dependency to a relative self adequate one is achieved.
One area he has been able to do so is the institution of a modernized tax system that provides for little or no tax evasion; ensuring that the state benefits fully from the many tax potential that laid aloof and unattainable. Admittedly, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) or Value Added Tax (VAT) met with many hurdles when owing to the minimal publicity and sensitization in incurred in the beginning; but that is not a strange phenomenon as the same story abounds in all the many countries where the VAT has been introduced.
The good news however is that the National Revenue Authority in the country achieved its primary target to register a maximum of 1,000 business houses for the GST has been achieved, even boasting of almost 1,500 businesses reaching the 200 million Leones threshold that have registered for far with the potential to do more. This, coupled with the fact that the sensitization dust is gradually settling with all things been equal will be a grand success for taxes have been known world-wide as the primary means for developing any country if used in the right way; a success that smacks of the President’s determination to ensure the country change of economic and financial dependency.
Secondly, Ernest Koroma last year in a bid to get things right in the agenda for change went the extra-mile to ensure that the country discover its fisheries and marine potential. Now, fisheries and marine resources have turned out to be one of the biggest revenue branded areas for the country’s economy. Every month, millions of dollars are now being collected for the exploit of our marines resources courtesy of the businesslike drive of Ernest Koroma as promised in his agenda for change. The difference is that whilst nothing was known to be benefiting the country in terms of tax and our precious marine wealth and taxes; we now record phenomenal benefits that are coming from these once dead areas of our economy.
The other area that is seeing the light courtesy of state business-administration of the Koroma regime, is the reforms that have been brought in mines policies in the country. Time again, the country has been identified as one of the richest in terms of Mineral Wealth but the sad fact that accompanies this story is that the country has got nothing to show for it. The Koroma regime however is ensuring that such is never the case anymore. These days when mining companies came, exploit our mineral wealth and vanish are long gone. The Mines and Mineral policy of the current government obtains that mineral exploits have to go concurrently with the requisite infrastructural and social corporate responsibility that will show for what the country benefits from its mineral exploits.
This is not just another policy by Ernest Koroma that is meant to ink our books and gather dust on the shelves, the $160,000,000 infrastructural project that has been commenced by the largest iron ore and magnetite mining company in the country – African Minerals Ltd., that will constitute the construction of over 180 kilometers of railway and road from Tonkolili District to Lungi where a port will also be created to add to the one at Pepel is certainly a showcase as to how the president wants the country to benefit from its natural wealth vis-à -vis his agenda for change (running the country as a business).
So, added to the fact that the country will be opened to many businesses and investments, the President in his agenda for change is also determined to ensure that if any company operates in the country, there should be traits of its presence in marked infrastructural and economic developments as entailed in the Agenda for Change (financial independence, infrastructural and economic development).Â
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