It is ironic that for a country hoping to feed itself, Sierra Leone is in an unholy alliance with rice importers who have shown no interest in either, changing the status quo or actively getting involved in farming to change its rice importing narrative.
According to a well-placed source at the Standard Bureau, the 5 per cent tax the New Finance Act has added to food imports will only worsen the nation’s rice or farming situation.
‘It is the role of government to provide food for the people. Government passes this role onto importers who get certain concessions from the government to do just that. But with these companies showing no sign of joining the nation to start farming and so be food self-sufficient, then the government should cancel these contracts to free Salone from this dependency on rice imports,’ said the scientist at the Bureau.
Our source narrated that the companies that the government of Sierra Leone depend on to import rice and other foodstuff have been in the country for decades, ever since the nation was self-sufficient in food and was exporting surplus to other countries, ‘but yet not one of them owns a farm,’ he alleged.
‘They have no intention of seeing Sierra Leone free from their grip. They make over $300 million a year from our government to import rice, something they are not too keen on changing. They go as far as importing expired rice they supply various government agencies, even the general public.’
‘If our president or the government is serious about his “Feed Salone” flagship project, then the first thing is to cut off the rice importers and use the $300 million yearly expenditure to fund start-up farms across the country and employ the youth to take charge of this effort,’ the Standard Bureau personnel suggested.
Therefore, the first casualty in the war to free Sierra Leone from the rice import racket that has in effect rendered the country hostage to those importing the nation’s staple food, should be rice importers.
Speaking to traders at the nation’s busy marketplaces they complained that although Sierra Leone is a fertile country, rice importers have shown no interest in farming.
‘By getting involved in farming these rice importers will not only be changing our dependency on imported rice story, they will also be creating jobs for thousands of our people. If they do get involved we will be killing two birds with one stone: We will be feeding the nation and creating jobs at the same time. But government seems bent on maintaining the relationship with these importers, regardless of how this relationship has affected our relationship with the soil,’ related one of the traders.
Commenting on the condition of the imported rice, our scientist at the Bureau alleged that over 90 per cent of the rice being imported into the country is expired. So, apart from making such a huge sum of money from the government of Sierra Leone to do what the government and people are quite capable of doing, rice importers are risking the health of the population by bringing expired products into the country.
Far from getting a reprieve from government or any other source, the Standard Bureau employee said our rice narrative is about to get worse, if our government does not do something drastic about its relationship with rice importers.
‘For this year 2024 and going forward, the government of Sierra Leone, while it is hoping to “Feed Salone” by taking an active and sustained interest in farming, deemed it wise and prudent to add a 5 per cent tax on imported foodstuffs. Where does this leave the “Feed Salone” project? How does it help the country to feed itself while at the same time adding such a debilitating tax onto the already high import burden? The only way this can help is if we cut off these rice importers from the government’s apron strings, and use the over $300 million setting the nation up for active commercial farming. Leaving our rice and farming hopes in the hands of these rice importers will never change our story for the better. They will be the only ones benefitting, which benefit they routinely wire to their countries of origin in the form of huge profits. For as long as these companies have been operating in the country they don’t invest in the communities or do things to improve the lives and condition of the people in the communities they operate. All they care about is to take care of the “Big Boys” – their lackeys in the government ministries, departments and agencies that are responsible for them getting their contracts renewed,’ the Standard Bureau source informed us.
With the new Finance Act he said we should be expecting for rice, which is presently going at NLe800 per bag, to be sold beyond NLe1,000 ‘because the importers will have to offset the 5 per cent tax imposed on them by raising the cost of the bag of rice on the consumer,’ he continued.
If Feed Salone, the president Bio led government’s flagship programme over the next five years, is to take off and work in the interest and benefit of the mostly poor and vulnerable people of Sierra Leone, he continued that the rice importers and our fellow citizens that help them cheat the people and government of Sierra Leone should all be shown the exit.
‘If the SLPP government does not sort out this issue now or show signs that they are serious about changing this narrative, then we will always be food dependent and never truly free from the rigmaroles of the global economy, including but not limited to the systems failure in rice importation that was exposed by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The shock to the global rice supply chain due to the Russia-Ukraine war informed all governments to focus on feeding themselves, and doing so from within.’
‘If we are to “Feed Salone” then we need to free her from the $300 million annual rice importation racket,’ concluded the Standard Bureau scientist.
