The Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MOICE) has asked for over Le 65 million to roll out its transformation plans in 2025.
In an hour long presentation of its budget in the conference room of the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday 29th August, 2024, the Minister of Information, Chernor A. Bah and the Acting Director of Information, Emmanuel A.B. Turay, laid out the transformation plans of the ministry, which includes new directorates, staff and a very comprehensive civic education strategy.
Minister Chernor Bah said the ministry had achieved incredible results despite the gap in resources and personnel. He added that for the vision of the President to be fully achieved, there is a need for massive investment in its work.
“The vision President Bio has charged us with is a big vision and we need investment to make it a reality,” Minister Bah said, adding: “We inherited almost zero infrastructure for all the things we are doing now. As a new ministry we have had to build from scratch with very few resources and personnel.”
The Principal Deputy Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Samuel Momoh, was impressed with the ministry’s achievements in spite of the few resources it has received.
“You have achieved a whole lot, and your achievements even dominated the presentation. This shows that you can do more if you get more resources,” Mr Momoh said.
Last year the Finance Ministry approved about Le 11 million in budgetary support, but the ministry only received slightly over Le 4 million.
Minister Bah said the plans for next year are big and that he is excited about the future.
Among the many things the ministry is set for next year is to hire 101 staff, get more directorates and properly roll out the civic education strategy nationwide.
“His Excellency has a big vision with civic education, and it starts with loving Sierra Leone. It is not just saying land that we love, it also involves having a sense of national pride,” Minister Bah said.
Attendees at the hearing were impressed and praised the ministry for how much it has done with tackling fake news by being proactive with information.