Sierra Leone Gets $224.2 Million From IMF
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has on Monday, June 5th June, 2017, under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Sierra Leone approved a 224.2 million dollars loan to help in the economic recovery and development efforts of the country.
This Extended Credit Facility is a three years arrangement which will build on the lessons from the previous ECF arrangement aiming at supporting important policies targeted at reducing inflation and significantly increasing domestic revenues, including elimination of numerous tax and duty exemptions, while increasing infrastructure spending and strengthening the social safety net. The ECF program is also expected to play a catalytic role to maintain external support and provide the framework for structural progress on revenue mobilization, public financial management and financial sector reforms as well as increase reserves in the medium- term.
The approval will enable a first immediate disbursement of 54.3 million dollars to the government of Sierra Leone and the remaining amount will be phased over the duration of the program.
This new program according to the IMF Deputy Managing Director Mr. Tao Zhang will provide support on three broad fronts including providing financing space in the short-run to fund critical spending, make a strong contribution to the reduction of poverty and support a medium-term structural reform framework, most critically in domestic revenue mobilization, public financial management (PFM) and financial sector reform.
By: Ibrahim Alusine Kamara
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