Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ibrahim Stevens has revealed that the Bank of Sierra Leone has recovered over 80% of the old leones and that they are determined to collect the remaining balance by the end of March. He attributed the successful transition to proper planning through stakeholder engagements and enough stocking of the new leones, while assuring that even after the deadline, citizens are free to take their old leones to the Bank of Sierra Leone.
Governor Stevens said very soon citizens will start enjoying an instant payment system on the national switch, according to him, this will enable citizens to perform transactions across all mobile networks and banks. He said in four months’ time citizens should expect an announcement from him. Dr. Stevens said the vision of the Bank is to go digital to achieve financial inclusion and a cashless society.
He went on to update the public that the abbreviation for our leones is ‘NLe’ locally and internationally is ‘SLE’. He also said that for historical and accounting purposes the Bank intends to keep the ‘Le’ as a legal abbreviation as the Bank is working on taking an amendment of the Bank’s Act to Parliament in order to retain the ‘Le’ in the Act.
Dr. Steven added that the exchange rate has stabilised for up to 9 months now and that, the Bank is working hard to manage the exchange rate. He also said the country is not lagging behind in repayment of foreign debts. The Bank Governor informed the public that the country’s foreign reserve is 3 months of import cover.
In another development, the Commissioner General, of the National Revenue Authority, Jeneba Kpaka-Bangura said NRA collected NLe10.1 billion in 2023 from the NLe10.277 billion target set by IMF which is about 4% short. This according to her was due to the 2023 General Election, Curfew, and other security issues in the country. She revealed that Parliament has set NLe14.972 billion as a target for NRA in 2024.
The Commissioner General urged citizens to use the Electronics Cash Register (ECR) in other to collect their GST receipt. She said by collecting receipts from the ECR you have ensured your GST payment goes to the Government.
Information and Civic Education Minister, Chernor Bah called on citizens to imbibe the culture of paying taxes as that is the only way the government can increase salaries and bring more developments.