A high powered delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by the Technical Assistance Advisor Fiscal Affairs Department, Seydou Coulibaly, on Tuesday 3 June 2025 held a strategic maiden meeting with a cross section of the management of the National Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA) at the British Council Building in Freetown.
The engagement hinged on excise, import duties, retail petroleum prices, revenue generation, the value chain network within the industry and the overall operational framework of the Petroleum Regulatory Agency formerly in the last six years and the critical transition to the National Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA).
The Director General of National Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Brima Baluwa Koroma, gave an insightful presentation on how the industry was being efficiently and economically regulated impacting the livelihoods of average citizens by restoring fairness and transparency in the sector, building confidence to both domestic and foreign investors to invest in the downstream sector.
He highlighted the enormous contributions of the World Bank and IMF to the industry, especially when the industry was still using the obsolete pricing formula which had been in existence for decades compounded with certain elements that were unfair to end-users. He noted that most of those strategic recommendations given by IMF had helped not to only stabilize the petroleum landscape, “but it sustains consistent revenue growth, it helps the Government of Sierra Leone to make informed decisions on economic growth, social contributions, tax policy, economic structure and industry reforms”.
Baluwa Koroma stated that in consonant with the World Bank and IMF, the Agency had its official pricing review formula in late 2024 with relevant stakeholders luring more Oil Marketing Companies competing with successive OMCs and the expansion of more gas stations in the industry.
The IMF team lead, Seydou Coulibaly, commended the management of NPRA for the in-depth discussions on the operational frameworks and successful strategies NPRA keeps implementing to ensure sound economic policies in the country.