By Sallieu S. Kanu
The Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Dahlia Khalifa, on Monday, March 6, 2023, held discussions with the Minister of Finance, Sheku Fantamadi Bangura, on the interventions of IFC in Sierra Leone and the region.
Khalifa is the Director for Central Africa, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone and is based in Nigeria. She was on a three-day working visit to Sierra Leone.
She briefed the minister on their interventions in the private sector, trade facilitation, microfinance and agriculture.
The Director also spoke about investment opportunities in the cocoa sector, infrastructure and mining.
Minister of Finance, Sheku Bangura, welcomed the Director and thanked her for their interventions.
He further informs her about the government plans to scale up investments in agriculture.
Minister Bangura also stated that with the compact, government will de-risk the sector, improve infrastructure and provide the enabling environment for private sector players to invest in rice, cassava and livestock and the entire production value chain.
He requested the IFC to look at capacity-building opportunities for both the private and public sectors so that they could leverage international financing opportunities.
Deputy Minister of Finance Bockarie Kalokoh called for technical assistance on cooperate governance for local private sector players to prepare them to access finance from IFC and other partners.