Monrovia – Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Boima Kamara, was on Wednesday reportedly rushed to hospital from his office on Broad Street after experiencing dizziness, sources told the FrontPageAfrica.
“No, I cannot comment on that right now, please, he is fine” Mrs. Nadia Sartus Kamara, Wife of Finance and Development Planning Minister
In a mobile phone interview, Minister Kamara’s wife, Mrs. Nadia Sartus Kamara laughed out the news of her husband’s reported ailment.
“No, I cannot comment on that right now, please,” Mrs. Kamara told FrontPageAfrica in a mobile phone interview. “He is fine.”
There has been no official comment from the Ministry on Minister Kamara’s reported ailment on Wednesday.
Born May 9, 1974, Kamara was appointed Minister in April following the departure of Amara Konneh, who now works with the World Bank.
He spent more than two years as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, a position he assumed following the death of Theophilus Bettie in 2013. He had worked as researcher at the CBL since 2001, and is also a lecturer at the University of Liberia.
While confirmation of his reported ailment is still scanty, it is noteworthy mentioning that Kamara heads the fiscal arm of the country at a tense time in the administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, battled by a sharp fall in essential commodity prices on the world market—iron ore and rubber.
He also comes at a time that one of the Government of Liberia’s biggest contributors to the national budget, the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), is struggling to find its way out of bankruptcy.
He is poised to lay to bed an array of last gasp projects by the government, including the completion of the Mount Coffee Hydro-power Plant and the completion of the route from Red Light in Paynesville to the Guinea border via Nimba County.
In his remarks recently during the visit by the Director General of the World Bank, Dr. Louis Rene Peter Larose, Minister Kamara informed Dr. Larose and delegation that support from the World Bank was highly needed and critical for Liberia’s political and security transition in ensuring stability during the 2017 Presidential and general elections.
Minister Kamara added that these are important and critical times that all of the support will be needed to ensure the stability of the country, emphasizing the need for more partnership with multilateral institutions, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Recounting the contributing factors that have caused a decline of the Liberian economy, Minister Kamara, who cited the deadly Ebola outbreak and the global economic meltdown, named critical areas of support that need assistance from the World Bank.
He indicated that at the moment, there is a global effect on some planned activities of the government in terms of implementing priority projects, as support from the World Bank towards Liberia’s economic growth is critical to the growth of the citizens.
Stating key priority projects, Minister Kamara named the rehabilitation of the Roberts International Airport terminal and runway, completion of the hydro, road projects connecting Liberia with its neighbours, as well as some strategic rural road connections.
While serving as Minister Kamara’s immediate predecessor, Konneh felt off while on the job and was rushed to Accra, Ghana for treatment where he was told to take some rest.
He later ended up in the United States of America where he stayed for a while before returning home.
Report by James H. Giahyue