‘CBL to Establish Robust Credit Reference System’

President George Weah, in his second Annual Message since assuming the stewardship of the Liberian Government, gave assurances that, despite the economic challenges that Liberia is faced with, the banking system remains buoyant and even “experienced improvement in aggregate assets, deposits, loans and capitalization”.

The stock of non-performing loans, President Weah cautioned, remains a major challenge for the banking system, although the Central Bank of Liberia is putting into place a ‘robust credit reference system’ that will address the issue of non-performing loans.

For those hoping to benefit from commercial bank loans, President Weah calmed their ‘nerves’ by stating that the Government is working to improve “the legal and policy environment to improve access to credit and to resolve other challenges in the private sector”.

Despite the challenge of non-performing loans, credit to the private sector rose from 13.1% in 2017 to 13.4% in 2018 largely because of growth in loans to all major sectors, the President stated.

The President assured members of the banking sector that the Government of Liberia is committed to settling the debt it owes to banks from the previous administration.