16 Jul 2010

H.E. Dr Ernest Bai Koroma

The general public will recall that the President has publically declared that agriculture is now his topmost priority after the significant progress made in the energy sector. As a result, the Koroma Government is now harvesting the success of its avowed commitment to make agriculture the ‘engine’ for socio-economic growth with a series of announcements to acknowledge funding for Agriculture from various sources.

Two new sources of funding for Agriculture have been recently announced by the Koroma Government:
1. The Islamic Development Bank has approved US$15 million (fifteen million dollars) to expand the Mattru Oil Palm Plantations and to build a processing plant therein.
2. The European Commission has approved €16 million (sixteen million Euros) to support the production, processing and marketing of cocoa, coffee and cashew in the country.

It was only last week that President Ernest Bai Koroma announced that the Global Agriculture and Food Security (GAFSP) had approved a request from the Government of Sierra Leone for fifty million dollars (US$50 million) in support of the Government’s Smallholder Commercialization Programme.