By Janet Sam-Kobba
The Ministry of Information and Civic Education [MIOCE} has requested over of NLE 65 million from the Ministry of Finance to carry out it plans for 2025.
The request was made as part of the budget discussion session which took place in the conference hall of the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday 29th August, 2024. In an hour long presentation of the budget outline, Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor A. Bah, along with the Acting Director of Information, Emmanuel A.B Turay, outlined the ministry’s transformation plans for next year.
The proposed plan includes the establishment of new directorates, expansion of staff and a comprehensive civic education strategy.
In his presentation, Minister Bah said the ministry under the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio has achieved outstanding results regardless of the gap in resources and personnel. He added that in order to fully achieve the vision of the President, massive investment in it work is needed.
“The vision President Bio has charged us with is a big vision and we need investments to make it a reality…we inherited almost zero infrastructure for all the things we are doing now. As a new ministry, we have had to build from scratch with very few resources and personnel,” he said.
The Principal Deputy Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Samuel Momoh applauded the Information ministry for their outstanding achievements despite the small amount of resources they have received.
“You have achieved a whole lot and your achievements even dominated the presentation. This shows that you can do more if you get more resources,’ Momoh stated.
In 2023, the Finance Ministry approved about NLe 11 million to the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, but only NLe4 million was disbursed.
Minister Bah said that his ministry has great and ambitious plans for next year and he is excited about the future plans in store. He also mentioned that the ministry is set to hire 101 staff members, establish new directorates and implement its civic education strategy countrywide.
“His Excellency has a big vision with civic education and it starts with loving Sierra Leone. It is not just saying land that we love, it also involves having a sense of national pride,” Minister Bah said.
Janet Sam-Kobba is an intern at ManoReporters and she is a final year student at the Mass Communication Department at Central University in Mile 91.
