Section 64, THE BANK OF SIERRA LEONE ACT 2019

(1) The Bank shall not, except provided in this section,grant any direct or indirect credt to an agency of Goverment or state owned entity with the exception of intra-days credits to secure the smooth functioning of the payment system. (2) An intra-day credit under subsection (1) shall be fully repaid before the end of the same day on which it is granted. (3) Subsection (1) shall not apply to publicly-owned banks and other supervised publicly-owned entities, which shall be given the same treatment as privately-owned banks and other supervised privately-owned entities. Cooperation with Government. Limit on lending to No. 5 Bank of Sierra Leone Act 2019No. 5 Bank of Sierra Leone Act 201938 39 (4) The Bank may purchase Government securities strictly for monetary policy purposes but the purchases shall only be made in the secondary markets. (5) The Bank may, if required to temporarily cover a deficit of the Government's current yearly budget make advances and loans to the Government on overdraft or in such other form as the Board may determine, and the total of the loans and advances shall, at no instance, exceed 5 percent of the Government's actual domestic revenue excluding privatisation receipts in the previous year's budget. (6) Treasury bills and Government securities held by the Bank against repurchase agreements entered into with it by financial institutions shall be excluded from the total holdings of Government securities of the Bank where the repurchase is required to be effective within ninety-three days from the date of the agreement. (7) An advance made under subsection (5) shall be repaid within 93 days from the end of the Government's financial year to which it relates; and where the advance remains unpaid after the due date, the Bank may not make further advances in any subsequent financial year unless the amounts due in respect of outstanding advance have been repaid. (8) The Bank shall charge interest on advances granted under this section at prevailing market rates. PART XI -MISCELLANEOUS