MONROVIA: The weeklong high-level African Development Bank delegation visit to Liberia has ended with renewed commitments by the Bank, the government and the private sector to work together in creating favorable conditions towards the country’s growth and development.
A joint press release issued on Sunday, April 2, 2023, said the African Development Bank delegation arrived in Liberia from March 20th and 24th, when six Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group undertook a consultation mission to Liberia at which time they held talks with top government officials and agencies, as well as the private sector and the civil society.
The release said the discussions between the Bank and Liberian institutions and stakeholders during the visit focused on creating the enabling environment for accelerating the country’s socioeconomic growth by mainstreaming private sector participation.
The AfDB delegation, during its engagement with Liberian institutions and stakeholders, reiterated commitment to its priority interventions in Liberia, targeting economic diversification through improved transport and energy infrastructure and improving economic governance and enhancing private sector development, the release added.
According to the release, the visit allowed the six executive directors to hear first-hand challenges and prospects that both government institutions and the private sector face and how to they could be ameliorated.
Stakeholders who shared notes with the AfDB delegation during the visit include the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, the Central Bank of Liberia, the Liberia Revenue Authority, the leadership of the National Legislature, the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs and Ministry of Mines and Energy, the release intoned.
The release indicated that the delegation also held talks with Liberia’s Vice President Chief Jewel Howard-Taylor who, on behalf of President George Manneh Weah, thanked the African Development Banks for what she described the Bank’s “worthy intervention in various sectors” and sought a more progressive relationship between the Bank and Liberia.
Others included the Ministries of Gender and Children Protection, Youth and Sports, Commerce and Industry, and Agriculture, and the National Investment Commission, National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), as well as integrity institutions.
The Bank used the visit to inspect its funded projects in the country as embodied in its current portfolio in Liberia that comprises 14 on-going and recently approved operations with cumulative commitments amounting to US$ 376.96 million, dominated by road transport and energy infrastructure, the release concluded.
