Exchange rate management in Sierra Leone:an evaluation of the floating exchange rate regime under the structural adjustment programme

Abstract

This study attempts to analyse the patterns of industrial location in Sierra Leone with a view to measure the extent of the effects of the existing industrial location policy on the spatial structure of manufacturing in Sierra Leone. It tends to confirm that the current industrial location imbalance is partly a result of the import-substitution strategy which was adopted by the government in the years following political independence in 1961. An empirical analysis of the spatial structure manufacturing in Sierra Leone over the period revealed a high degree of industrial location imbalance indicating that Government's efforts to disperse manufacturing activity outside the Freetown Area has so far met with little success. The study also reveals that the bi and tri-polar relationship between the towns of Bo and Kenema on the one hand and those of Makeni, Port Loko and Magburaka on the other, respectively makes them zones of potential growth points in the rural periphery. The specialization analysis demonstrates that the food, beverages and tobacco, wood and wood products industries are the manufacturing activities that are best represented at the regional level. It also reveals that the western region is specializing in nationally declining or slow-growing industries.