Tappita, Nimba County, September 12, 2026: Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, has hailed the management and staff of the Jackson F. Doe Hospital for their effective use of government funding.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Speaking during his visit to the hospital in Tapita, Nimba County, over the weekend, Min. Ngafuan highlighted how the national budget has successfully financed critical infrastructure, such as emergency room expansions, new vehicles and updated power systems.
He indicated that the essence of the visit was to obtain first-hand information on the operations of the Hospital.
“To you, and through you, the head of this facility, and to the entire management and technical squad, the doctors, local and foreign, the nurses, administrative staff, down to the janitors, everyone who has been working to ensure that we deliver services to our people, thank you. We have come to see that the balls we have been supplying you, you have been scoring goals,” he asserted.
The MFDP boss, while encouraging assigned healthcare workers and administrators to continue their good work, proudly announced that the nation is approaching a one-billion-dollar domestic revenue milestone.
This, he pointed out, attributes to the collective efforts of the populace rather than external loans. Reminding the health workers of their sacred duty of saving life, he assured the government’s commitment to improve the conditions of service delivery for all government functionaries, with the JFD Hospital and, by extension, the health sector, being no exception.
Under the leadership of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, he vowed that the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning remains committed to playing the “midfield” role of supplying more balls for more goals to be scored in the different sectors.
Accordingly, Minister Ngafuan propounded as usual, that the realization of a billion dollar in domestic revenue is credited to all Liberians, and that the benefits thereof is for all Liberians.
Through the budget, he revealed more health workers including some of those at the JFD have been placed on payroll.
At the same time, he disclosed that government is funding foreign doctors from Europe, some of whom are deployed at the JFD. “So what have we been doing with the money we have raised? As you said, we have been putting you on the payroll. We are funding foreign doctors to come here from Europe. Some of them are here. The evidence is here.”
While celebrating these achievements, Minister Ngafuan acknowledged that there are remaining gaps in medical technology, specifically identifying the urgent need for new CT scanners and waste management tools.
He pledged that as national revenue grows, the government will increase its financial support to further modernize the healthcare sector.
During the visit, the Minister was taken on a guided tour by the hospital’s management, wherein he was shown some of the things the budget has funded.
The Minister was made to see visible outcomes such as service vehicles, including buses and ambulances. “You showed me the new generator room that the budget funded. You showed me the expansion project for your emergency room that the budget is funding.”
“As I said, and I will reiterate in the wrap-up: we have noted that you need a new CT scan machine. We are also seeing that you need to replace the X-ray machine. Thanks to the President and his foundation, the JNB Foundation, he has donated one X-ray machine. But the government will have to step up. And I can assure you that we will step up.”
“You have also said that you need incinerators because the waste you deal with is sensitive waste. So that’s something we have to work on quickly. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon.”
The MFDP Minister assured the JFD Hospital of more to come as the budget continues to grow. He intoned that while the government may not be able to solve all the problems next year, but next year will be much better than this year as more revenues are being generated.
“If the budget is dwarfed, we can only promise dwarf things. And the things we do will be dwarfish. But as the budget is growing, the ambitions of the country are growing. You can hope for better.”
“A billion-dollar budget cannot solve all the problems, because just our initial analysis of requests was more than two billion. So as the budget grows, the requests grow. But we will do more next year,” he added.
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