Cabinet ministers and Liberia’s development partners are being urged to roll up their sleeves to deliver development to the people.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, Liberia, May 12, 2025 – Finance and Development Planning Minister, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, says President Joseph N. Boakai is inpatient with delay, while urging International Development Partners and government officials to roll-up their sleeve to fast track implementation of infrastructure and developmental projects across the country.
Speaking in an interview over the weekend on progress made by the government and providing update on the recently concluded Spring Meeting held in Washington, DC, Minister Ngafuan said overall progress of the government is good but they are much more concerned about moving faster with development.
According to him, they are unlocking all of impairments to implementation of donors’ projects across the country, assuring Liberians that they are instituting policy actions to fast-track development.
“The overall progress is good. But, we have been discussing how to move faster. President Joseph N. Boakai is inpatient with delay. And so, we are his Lieutenants; we have been given the marching orders. The people are excited with what they are seeing but they want more. The reward for doing well is the burden of doing more. So, we are the Ministry of Finance are holding ourselves accountable along with Ministries and Agencies. Some of the problems of delay come from the donors themselves. So, we coordinate donors’ engagement to where it’s a problem from the donors, we are telling them precisely that they must move faster. And so, this whole issue about moving faster is not only for government alone. It’s also for the partners. They know that and I have been clear with them”, he explained.
He assured Liberians of faster delivery based on what they are doing therefore, Liberia’s infrastructure development, energy, health and educational plans will move with speed, adding that the government has identified all of the bottlenecks and they are making counterpart funding available for road construction.
Providing update on the Spring meeting, and other bilateral meetings with international developmental institutions, especially the World Bank, Minister Ngafuan said he is seeing progress for Liberia that he said, indicates that today will be better than yesterday, which will open doors for better infrastructure, energy and water and sanitation.
“We will make great progress. In June or July this year, we will be dedicating the new Redemption Hospital in Upper Caldwell. Also, beginning September, the Ministry of Education through one of the World Bank projects, will start construction for more than one hundred elementary schools across the country, to improve foundational learning. Implementations will happen from all fronts to make Liberia better. I am upbeat, the country is making progress” Minister Ngafuan disclosed.
He said partners usually prioritize the Resettlement Action Plan, and more often than that, the World Bank and other partners don’t fund such, which makes it the government responsibility to provide financial settlement for those citizens.
The Finance boss continued that due to some of the many streams attached to some donor projects and government’s inability to meet up with its counterpart funding obligations, caused some projects to delay for up to eight years.
He warned that in negotiating a project, care should be taken regarding conditions to agree upon, because some negotiators may not understand full implications because it may have wider implications for those who are not in the room.
“So, going forward, what we are doing now, we are bringing everyone and very careful that all project that we are discussing with partners, we are clear on the conditions because the effectiveness condition, disbursement condition must be things that we all know are fair and proper and we must implement. We don’t want project to stall.”
He noted that reasons why projects delay is because sometimes governments, not only the Liberian government, encounter financial challenges that lead to inability to finance critical financial components, noting “That is why the African Development Bank has changed that modality and now placed it in the overall financing of the Bank, to move the project faster. Sometimes, some of the government counterpart funds are in kind, not cash. And so, if that is not done, project delays.” Editing by Jonathan Browne
