Assessment on the Impact of Trade Tariff on Procurement and Supply in Sierra Leone

Trade tariffs are a crucial policy tool in Sierra Leone for raising money, controlling imports, and safeguarding homegrown businesses. Tariffs, however, provide difficulties for supply chain and procurement operations even though they might promote economic expansion. Improving supply chain operations and guaranteeing efficient public service delivery depends on an understanding of how tariffs affect procurement. Targeting various levels of authorities, including procurement officers, suppliers, and logistics specialists within the MTI, a cross-sectional design was used. Out of 57 employees, 50 responders were chosen by stratified random sampling. Structured questionnaires were used to gather the data, and SPSS version 26 was used for descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation analysis. The results indicated that for the majority of respondents, tariffs—especially Value-Added Tax (38%) and excise charges (30%)—significantly raised procurement costs by 20–30%. Tariffs "always" cause delays in procurement timeframes, according to 58% of respondents. Additionally, 40% of respondents said that budget planning was frequently disrupted, and 52% said that tariffs significantly restricted access to overseas suppliers. In Sierra Leone, trade tariffs seriously impede supply chain and procurement activities, especially in the MTI. In the end, they undermine efficiency by raising prices, delaying deadlines, and limiting supplier possibilities. Building supplier and procurement officer capability, standardising tariff laws, investing in digital tariff-tracking systems, and establishing exclusions for necessities are all necessary to address these issues. These changes could improve the effectiveness of procurement and promote more general economic growth.