MONROVIA – Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has been hitting the media circuit lately in a bid to explain policies that underpin his government’s fiscal deliverables. And amid the hue and cry from certain quarters that the Rescue Government is not well on course, Minister Ngafuan says the Joseph Nyuma Boakai-led government is on track with its development agenda, noting that this government has made tremendous progress and is resolved to address other exogenous issues, especially the perennial problems facing the University of Liberia, the nation’s highest citadel of learning.
Appearing last Friday on the widely syndicated Class Reloaded talk show, Minister Ngafuan spoke to the problems facing the government-run premier tertiary institution which remains shut down because of protests from students over the institution’s dilapidated conditions, and the main faculty body’s gripe over salary backlogs.
According to Minister Ngafuan, the problem at the University of Liberia requires critical review and the solution must be drastic. In fact, Minister Ngafuan who himself was once a student leader at the University of Liberia, is calling for complete reverification of the University’s payroll structure.
“In my first term as Budget Director and Finance Minister, we took the University’s budget from $500,000 to US$15 million. Dr. Dennis, peace be to his ashes, we even did two graduation ceremonies in one year. It was sustainably supported. We haven’t lost our heart for the University at all. I was secretary of the board of the University for 15 or more years. I have been a lecturer at the University. I have a trinity of links with the University.
“Sometimes it comes out as if to say we are not funding the University. The University budget was around $33 million last year, and I can say clearly, unequivocally, that this government, almost all that amount was given to the University, besides an infinitesimal $16,000. In the budget process, for people to get even 90% of the budget, even allocated budget, is a tall order. It’s not because people want to deprive you of money. There are a lot of rules and regulations where the University got almost 100% besides $16,000 out of $33.6 million,” Minister Ngafuan said.
Queried further that the amount he had announced was for the 2024 fiscal budget and not the 2025 budget which the UL administration was making a request of US$500,000 to offset salaries and renovation works, Minister Ngafuan agreed, but insisted that the University budget is now about $33.9 million.
“We are funding the University. The appropriation is on time. We funded up to September, we might have given almost $33 million to the University, so we are moving on schedule.
“This request that came out for extra money was beyond the University budget. It is what you call off-budget expenditure. You are asking for more than what was legislated,” he said.
Asked why the University, not having exhausted its 2025 budget, would now be making a request for $500,000 within its 2025 budget, Minister Ngafuan clarified that the University’s budget is mostly consumed by personnel cost.
“Of the $34 million, $32 million is in personnel cost. We could fool ourselves and say we are taking it from there, but at the end of the day we are fooling ourselves,” he said.
Reverifying LU Payroll a Must!
According to Minister Ngafuan, the solution to the perennial LU salary deficit and the infrastructural problems demands a surgical review of the staff payroll.
“In that $32 million, we don’t want to believe that we cannot find savings. We are reverifying the University payroll, that this month September, everyone on the University payroll must be reverified and certified; otherwise, everyone from the heads of deans of colleges, or heads of department chairpersons, coming to the deans of colleges, vice president for academic affairs for administration, up to the president; we want them to sign off and tell us that Mr. So and So is a professor at the University. If you don’t tell us that and put your signature, we will not pay anyone who will not be certified by all of those people for the month of September. We reserve the right to take that list and carry it to integrity institutions to reverify after our review. So, we are going to pay only after people are reverified and put back on the payroll.
“We could get some savings. Besides what the government gives the University; the University collects fees and others. We intend to help them by getting involved. We will help them.
“The other thing is that we are knocking on external doors for the University. We are mobilizing some external partners, and we have started to get some initial goodwill. We want the president to take the external resource mobilization effort very seriously, but we also want some serious clean up campaigns at the University. It’s not just physical sanitation work, but we need to ensure that we are satisfied with the integrity of the payroll,” Minister Ngafuan said.
On the Economy, Boakai is like Ronald or Messi
According to the nation’s chief fiscal policy gatekeeper, the Liberian economy is on course because President Boakai is an exemplary steward of the ship of state who leads his team like legendary footballers Leonard Messi and Ronald.
“President Boakai in football parlance is like Ronaldo or the Messi. He knows how to convert. He knows how to take chances. And so, we are all supporting him. There are a lot of finishers here, and at various levels, people are finishing. I call it execution mentality.
“We had a situation. USAID aid had been practically gutted. We had a transition in America, from President Biden to President Trump, and the new government came in with a new emphasis. Out of 29 projects, only five now exists in scale down modalities in terms of the resources that were available to this country, including to the water sector.
“Just today, Mo Ali was in my office with the ADB Group trying to salvage the situation in the water sector. USAID was the biggest donor in water, and some projects were ongoing, but everything just stopped. USAID was our second largest donor. We lost around $300 million. And so, everybody felt that the sky would have collapsed, but we managed to keep the ship from sinking, we managed to keep the plane from crashing because President Boakai is a good pilot, and as I usually said during those period of difficulty, good pilots do not tell you that there will be no turbulence. Good pilots are people who will fly the plane to its destination despite turbulence. We’ve had turbulence, and some of those gloomy projections have not materialized. We are still sailing.
Minister Ngafuan further disclosed that job creation is the forward for the economy, and that his government is focused on revitalizing the private sector to create more jobs for the Liberian people.
“In terms in terms of jobs creation and opportunities in the private sector, we are getting there. At the Ministry of Finance, our workforce is about 1,000, so when we talk about jobs creation it’s not to make the Ministry to absorb 5,000 persons. Economists will tell you that it’s not an efficient way to go. Government ministries can only hire a finite number of persons for government efficiency. The jobs must be out there with the private sector.
“There are various initiatives that we are on in the private sector. You saw that my former boss at the ADB, Dr. Adesina came in July to launch the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank, the YEIB. That initiative in which the ADB is putting $16 million. The government is putting in $2 million because the ADB funds technically is a government loan because this is not grant, we pay back, although over a very lengthy period. The Korean private sector investment is also going to be putting something.
“Most of the EU funding is grant. USAID funding is grant. But most of the World Bank is loan, but they call it credit. They tell you 40 years repayment period, with very low interest payment rate. But they are so concessional in a way that you have loan with a huge portion of concessionality.
“The total target is that 30,000 youth businesses will be supported. It will create over the period when it reaches its point of full traction, almost 100,000 private sector jobs.
“We are enabling the private sector. There are a lot of things happening in government. The Ministry of Youth and Sports was given some support under this budget to do some short-term employment program. At the Ministry of Finance and even the Ministry of Labor, internship programs are happening to prepare young people to enter the job market,” Mr. Ngafuan said.
Overcoming Constraints to growth
Making a deep dive into what he termed as barriers to expanding the Liberian economy, Finance Minister Ngafuan said the government is working overtime to resolve those issues that constrain growth, especially in the private sector.
Among other issues, Minister Ngafuan said the cost of power is causing a lot of Liberian businesses to shut down. The insufficiency or lack of electricity is the main driver that is causing businesses to go under.
“So, when we are investing in power expansion, we are investing in job creation because when businesses get profitable, they expand; they hire more people, they put the money back through expansion. Profitability of businesses increases investment.
“Along with colleagues from the Energy Sector, we joined President Boakai recently on a mission to Mission to Tanzania. Liberia was among 12 countries in Africa chosen by the African Development Bank and the World Bank to launch Mission 300. The aim is to give 300 million Africans access to electricity by 2030. Liberia is one of the countries chosen.
“We have done something called the Liberia Energy Compact. Our technical forms in energy have worked with them; it costs more than a $1 billion, and the intention is to take energy access from currently 33% to 75% in five years. So, you will see us expanding.
“Last year, President Boakai broke ground for a 20 megawatts solar panel at Mount Coffee. It should be coming on stream if not this month, it may come on in October or so.
“In the private sector engagement, there is another company called Sky Tech working with LEC to put on stream another 23 megawatts of power. You saw the leadership transition in LEC what they did. We recruited one of our best and brightest. I was not surprised because when I was here at the Ministry of Finance before, he was my chief economist. We had our economic shop then called the Micro-Fiscal. And so, he left and worked with the World Bank interregional project. And just as some of us were called back as reservists to the battlefront, President Boakai called him to the battlefront. And you saw what is happening. People had gotten used to the epileptic power supply during the dry season. But because of what Tom Gonkawon and his team had started, and what Sheriff and his team have brought, you saw stability. In fact, it reached to a point where any people were saying, we have too much power.
“New communities are being lit up. People are getting joyful and joyful. Sheriff and his team are on the road and we at Finance are going to be backstopping them. And so, in terms of power, which is one of the main constraints to growth, the government is on track.
The Road to Development is the development of roads
Touching further on what he sees as another major constraint to economic development which the Boakai administration is fighting tooth and nail to overcome, Minister Ngafuan noted that the Chinese usually say, the road to the development is the development of roads.
“So, what are we doing? Things started with the first UP government, like the Fish Town-Harper Highway which started when I was minister of Finance. It was not paved at the time, but it was stabilized.
“Now, we intend under this government, thanks to Minister Giddings and the team, for paved roads to reach to Harper under this government.
“When you have people commuting quickly as they can, do you know that inflation has dropped in the country? In July inflation dropped around 7%. One of the main drivers is lower domestic food inflation. One of the main causes for that is that our farmers are bringing their products to market fresh from the farms. Food prices are dropping. If the NTA that had just graduated from the Monrovia Transit Authority can move from here, in the middle of the rainy season and go to Lofa; when they move from here to go Harper, do you know what it does for the private sector? Now, more and more people are going to take opportunities in the leeward counties, and Liberia will get connected.
Civil Servant’s payment Issue
Quizzed on allegations that the government of Liberia has been irregular when it comes to the timely disbursement of civil servants’ salaries, Minister Ngafuan said, without batting an eyelid, that the small cacophony of grievance amounts to the paradox of excellence. He said the Government of Liberia has not established a code of excellence to the extent the workers become aggrieved when their pay is delayed for one or two days, which was the case in the past when civil servants did not take pay for a month or more.
“We don’t pay through one bank and some of the banks have system issues, delays in crediting. One of the banks has not completed the payment of the Ministry of Finance and the MD was called, and they are working extra things tonight. We remitted the funds by the 25th and they had gotten the money. Barring exogenous factors we pay on time,” he said.
On the issue of the 2026 budget
Regarding the issue of the 2026 fiscal national budget, Minister Ngafuan said, for the first time in the last six years, the Joseph Nyuma Boakai-led administration passed the national budget on time, noting that the 2026 budget will be improved and modernized.
“We are trying to do some budget modernization. Before I left, we initiated the MTEF where we started training people on the expenditure framework on a multi-year basis. It was launched after the training. My successor started something like that, but over time things fizzled out. There are a lot of capacity issues which I am working on at the Ministry of Finance.
“We are going to do many things to ensure that the budget process can be skewed to development. The overarching document which any country has is the Constitution. Next to the Constitution is the Budget. But the budget must align with a development plan. Now, we have a development plan called the AAID.
“When we were crafting the development plan we talked to the ministries and agencies. We have put together a plan that encapsulates their vision and it was debated. So, the first thing is their alignment with the development plan,” Minister Ngafuan said confidently, noting the myriad progress made at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to enhance workforce productivity.