Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma says the Ebola outbreak has been devastating to his country’s economy, nearly crippling the tourism industry.
In an interview with VOA Wednesday, Koroma said the outbreak undermined his government’s efforts to boost and restructure the economy after years of civil war.
“As a result of Ebola, most businesses shut down – a good number of the mining companies ceased operations, flights were canceled to the country, tourism was almost brought to a standstill, and even within the country, businesses that were operating scaled down substantially,” he said.
“So, there was a considerable slowdown in the economy; loss of revenue to government, loss of revenue to individuals and businesses and the country was more or less isolated. Nobody ventured in, nobody will discuss business at this time,” Koroma added.
Koroma said he was grateful to President Barack Obama’s administration for the assistance given to help combat Ebola. His comments came following a meeting with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday.
“He invited us to provide reassurance that he was very pleased he initiated a process to support us in the fight against Ebola, and he was very happy that America participated,” the Sierra Leonean leader said. He said Obama assured him that he is committed to help Sierra Leone fight the deadly disease. He added the president is “also prepared to provide support to us in our recovery programs, and in our post-Ebola economic development proposals.”
Koroma said the only visitors that arrived in the country at the height of the Ebola outbreak were health officials from the international health organizations, non-governmental organizations, as well as banking institutions, including the African Development Bank and the World Bank.
The Sierra Leone president said the disease has adversely affected the entire West African sub-region. Liberia and Guinea are the two other West African nations currently battling the disease.
He hailed the response from African countries to help combat the disease at its onset.
Koroma said his government plans to implement measures that would revamp the health system, including establishing a Center For Disease Control, which he said would help train health officials to be better equipped to combat future disease outbreaks.
“We are trying to reactivate [health] services in in the country. This will require us to improve on the health infrastructure. We will be required to train more of our personnel. It will also require us to ensure that we put in systems that will focus on isolation, prevention and strengthen our capacity to track diseases. Not only to finish up the fight against Ebola, but also to ensure that we develop the capacity that will enable us to fight back any future outbreak,” he said.
