Monrovia – In order to reduce transportation cost and maintain a stellar road network throughout the country, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the World Bank have signed the second additional financing of the Liberia Road Asset Management Project (LIBRAMP).
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh – [email protected]
The World Bank Liberia country manager, Larisa Leshchenko, said the aim of the signing is to put the corridor of the road in good condition for over a decade, revealing that the overall cost of the project is US$314.4 million.
Contribution from the World Bank, Leshchenko said, amounts to US$157.7 million which comprised 50 percent; the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund (LRTF) contributed US$108.9 million (35%) and the Liberia Government underwrites US$47.8m (15%).
“The scope of the original project was to rehabilitate 246 kilometers of a primary road section in Liberia connecting the Capitol Monrovia to Guinea border,” said Leschenko.
“The project has shown a strong performance with the rehabilitation phase successfully completed and commissioned since 2016 and renamed “Suakoko Highway.”
She furthered that the additional support, among other things, will achieve the mitigation of the exchange rate losses, finance resettlement of project affected-person and implement road safety and right-of-way preservation activities along the Monrovia-Guinea border corridor to sustain the development impact of the project.
Due to the consideration of all requirements to complete the project activities satisfactorily, the project has also been restructured to include an extension of the project closing date by two years from June 30, 2022, to June 30, 2024, she noted.
Speaking also, the Minister of Finance and Developmental Planning, Boima Kamara, thanked the World Bank for its contribution, adding that wherever they stop the road, they will complete it well.
Kamara added: “Road happens to be one of those areas that our economy depends on for recovery.”
“For jobs to be created, for poverty to be addressed, it will ensure that which is constructed is maintained in the way that keeps transaction flows at the lowest cost,” Kamara said.
