Part Five – An Agenda to Revive the Economy and Restore Dignity – Economic Matters
By Jarrah Kawusu-Konte
Seven years of policy missteps, unchecked corruption, and politicised governance have plunged Sierra Leone’s economy into a quiet agony. Markets once alive with trade now echo with silence. Households scrape by on less than the price of a loaf of bread. Farmers, traders, teachers, and young entrepreneurs alike are suffocating under the weight of rising prices, a collapsing currency, and shrinking job opportunities. The dream of a self-reliant life has become a luxury only a few can afford.
Across the country, despair is now our most abundant resource. Dr Ibrahim Bangura, however, believes this doesn’t have to be our final story. He sees the economic hardship more than just in GDP figures or inflation charts. He sees it in the daily pain of parents unable to provide lunch for their children, of graduates queuing at cybercafés with empty CVs and crowded hopes, of market women watching their capital disappear under the weight of inflation. He understands that beneath the numbers are human lives, and it is those lives he is determined to uplift.
Born into modest circumstances, Dr Bangura knows what it means to struggle, to hustle, to make every penny stretch. But he also knows what it takes to build, to rise, and to create lasting change. Through his work as a public policy expert and international consultant, he has advised governments and institutions across Africa on inclusive development and sustainable growth. His writings, teachings and practical experience provide a roadmap for national recovery rooted in local realities and global best practices.
Dr Bangura’s economic vision is ambitious, yet deeply grounded in Sierra Leone’s true potential. He believes that no country can grow when its people are shrinking in despair. His plan is built around three pillars: productivity, equity and resilience.
He aims to revive agriculture not through handouts, but by investing in technology, access to capital, and rural infrastructure. “We cannot feed our nation with slogans,” he once told me. “We must empower the farmer with tools, roads, markets and dignity.”
His belief in transforming agriculture from subsistence to surplus is not academic, it is deeply personal, drawn from family roots in Mambolo and shaped by real-life experiences in development strategy.
In the industrial and service sectors, Dr Bangura prioritises youth-led entrepreneurship, small business support, and skills-driven employment. He calls for reforms in tax policy to ease the burden on small enterprises, and for incentives that attract responsible investment. His proposed Economic Opportunity Zones would decentralise industry, reduce urban congestion, and create regional hubs of employment.
He doesn’t shy away from hard truths. “There is no dignity in dependency,” he says. “But there is great strength in honest work, well rewarded.” His policies target not just economic output, but national self-worth, restoring pride in productivity, fairness in distribution, and justice in opportunity.
From his consultations with global economic experts to grassroots conversations with market women, Dr Bangura is shaping a people-centred economic plan that reflects our pain. He believes in public-private synergy, in state efficiency, in cutting waste, bureaucracy and corruption, and in rebuilding the economic confidence of the everyday citizen. He wants to be deliberate about a more diversified economy and a better management of our extractive sector. This is both a policy pitch and a call to reclaim our dignity.
Let us not accept a future where suffering becomes tradition. Let us not normalise economic despair as a national identity. Let us elect a leader who understands both the struggle and the solution, who can heal our economy, unite our communities around shared purpose, and build a nation where prosperity is not a privilege, but a promise.
Let us heal, unite and build—with Dr Ibrahim Bangura starting with his election as the APC flag bearer.
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Jarrah Kawusu-Konte is a communication Specialist, former Political Editor of the We Yone Newspaper (2003 – 2006) and former Communications Manager and Director of Communications at State House (2011 – 2018). Former APC MP candidate for Koinadugu District in 2002. A son of the soil, a believer in redemption, and a servant of hope.
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