By Sulaiman Jalloh
Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Finance through the Public Debt Management Division has, on Monday, July 29, 2024 at Leasure lodge, Aberdeen in Freetown, launched the Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) workshop.
The workshop was sponsored by the African Development Bank under the grant financed project, Enhancing Efficiency in Public Debt Management Institutional Support Project (EEPDMINSP).
Speaking to journalists shortly after the launching, Director of Public Debt Management Division, Mathew Sandy, said the role of his department is to manage and strategize debt in a way to ensure that government minimize the risk of debt, noting the workshop is to update the national DSA repost something, he said, is a long-run projection of the debt step, micro economy, and the fiscal monitoring, adding that if all is put together it will give the debt dynamics so that they can access the risk of debt in the country. He stated that they will do their analysis that will help them prepare the annual budget, noting it is expected that this year’s debt is going to be around 4% and that the volume of the indicators have improved significantly in terms of debt service.
According to him, the threshold of the debt service was eighteen percent (18%), something, he said, was below because the country is ranked medium debt country capacity, the country supposed to be below that percentage. He furthered that the standard template for debt sustainability analysis for low-income countries debt is the IFM, adding that his division is supported by the rocky fella foundation to go deeper in their debt sustainability analysis, saying it is more granular on the data while thanking the America foundation.
An economist from the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Abdul Rahim Dumbuya stated that they provided data to the Ministry of Finance and as benchmark they were to contribute eighteen percent (18%) debt service to revenue which elevated the debt management process, noting “our revenue mobilization has been effective.” He noted that some people do not want to pay tax and that as a responsible Authority they have development strategies which encompasses and strengthens revenue mobilization in the country and, as such, the strategies have over the years seen them meet their targets to support government programmes.
