Liberia: Pres. Weah Warns COVID-19 ‘Severe Impact’; Says Poor Public Service Could Undermine Economy

By Konah Rufus Last updated Jul 17, 2020

Capitol Hill, Monrovia – Liberia’s President George Weah has warned the 54th Legislature that emerging and existing challenges including poor public sector delivery and the severe impact of COVID-19 could undermine successful implementation of the Government’s Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD).

The PAPD is the CDC-led Government’s premier development plan modelled after the erstwhile Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration.

President Weah sounded the caveat during the submission of Fiscal Year 2020/2021 national budget in the tone of US$535.4 million to the Legislature.

“The Liberian economy faces emerging and existing challenges that could undermine the formidable tasks of delivering on the PAPD, ensuring effective macroeconomic management, debt stability and smooth recovery from shocks that undermined the country’s growth prospects over the years. Other challenges include severe macroeconomic imbalances, low economic development, poor private sector development and poor public service delivery and the severe impact of COVID-19,” the President said in a communication accompanying the resource envelope.

With these inhibiting challenges, the President revealed that Liberia’s pre-COVID-19 real GDP growth rate for 2020 was projected at 0.5 percent. However, this projection has been revised to contract to 2.5 percent.

The medium term growth prospect, he said, will be driven mainly by the “mining and panning sector”, which is projected at 9.7 percent recorded in 2019, while the projected decline in the mining sector is on account of the anticipated decline in the price of iron ore, one of the country’s major export commodities.

However, he added the agriculture and fishery sector is expected to grow at 2.3 percent in 2020, which represents a 0.3 percent growth compare to the growth in 2019. Also, the manufacturing sector is projected to record a modest growth of 1.6 percent, up from 7.6 decline realized in 2019.

Although the service sector is expected to record a contraction of 1.7 in 2020, he adds that it represents a stark improvement on the contraction of 5.2 percent realized in 2019.

On the overall, the medium growth prospect of Liberia is promising as the economy is projected to grow at 4 percent and 4.2 percent respectively in 2021 and 2022.

“The agriculture and fishery, and the mining and panning sectors are the only positive growth sectors probably in the medium term. All other sectors are shrinking,” the Presented informed the lawmakers.

“The Liberian economy faces emerging and existing challenges that could undermine the formidable tasks of delivering on the PAPD, ensuring effective macroeconomic management, debt stability, and smooth recovery from shocks that undermined the country’s growth prospects over the years. Other challenges include severe macroeconomic imbalances, low economic development, poor private sector development, and poor public service delivery, and the severe impact of COVID-19.” – Pres. George Manneh Weah

Meanwhile, the Plenary of the House of Representatives has mandated its joint Committee on Ways, Means and Finance, Budget, and Public Expenditure to review FY 2020/2021 national budget.

Plenary’s action was predicated on a motion by Representative Clarence Massaquoi (District#3, Lofa County) entreating the august body to forward the resource envelope to the Budget Committee for review and subsequent preliminary report within two weeks.

President Weah, following a two-and-a-half-month delay, submitted the budget in the tone of US$535.4 million – three percent more than the 2019/2020 final recast budget of US$518 million.