By Saio Marrah
As Finance Minister takes the 2023 Government Budget to Parliament today Friday, the Country Coordinator of Budget Advocacy Network, (BAN) Abu Bakarr Kamara has highlighted Agriculture, Social Welfare and Health as sectors their institution would want the budget to give priority.
Bangura told Politico that food prices have gone up, coupled with the high inflation, and as such they at BAN are expecting to see a budget that caters more for the vulnerable people whom he said are most affected.
“For the aged, they have made a clarion call that they are facing serious difficulties in accessing water and that it is also too costly for which they do not have the required resources.”
He cited a case wherein the aged people at the Grafton Home continue to solicit the assistance of Guma Valley Water Company without favourable response.
Another priority area he talked about has to do with “huge shift” in food production with added value to the agricultural products.
According to him had Sierra Leone been food self-sufficient the country would not have faced the present the challenges.
“So we expect investment in the value added agricultural production so that we would have enough food in our country and so that we can also export some of the food, that will earn us foreign exchange which will help cushion the pressure on the US Dollar,” he asserted.
Bangura also noted that health as a very critical investment sector which he said is of great essence that the government should place premium on.
He also talked about a study conducted by BAN which he said indicated that lifesaving equipment in government hospitals are not only inadequate, but are mostly out-dated as well.
He therefore said BAN expects the government to invest in lifesaving equipment so that the lives of especially women and children will not be lost from otherwise curable diseases.
He said BAN wants to see a budget that is gender- friendly and that the government decentralised the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police.
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