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ADNews-Monrovia, Liberia: Liberia’s Minister of Finance, Development, and Planning, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, has announced that the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development has committed to leading a group of Arab lenders to mobilize financing for the Salayea-to-Voinjama road, a 114-kilometer stretch crucial to the Gbarnga-to-Mendikorma Road Project.
In an exclusive interview on Prime FM’s weekend evening program The Night-Time Heat, Minister Ngafuan disclosed that the Kuwaiti Fund will spearhead efforts involving several Arab financial institutions. These include the Saudi Fund for Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), and the Abu Dhabi Fund.
According to Minister Ngafuan, this commitment emerged from recent high-level discussions in Kuwait City with Waleed S. Al-Bahar, Acting Executive Director General of the Kuwaiti Fund, just ahead of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C.
Ngafuan noted that the renewed engagement follows the signing of an agreement between the Liberian Government and the Kuwaiti Fund to restructure an outstanding debt of US$6.7 million. This restructuring lifts a suspension on disbursements related to the highway project, which had been in place since early 2023 due to Liberia’s delinquency in repaying a US$14 million loan granted in 2016 to the National Port Authority (NPA).
“The Kuwaiti Fund has now agreed to release previously withheld disbursements to contractors working on the Gbarnga–Salayea segment,” the Finance Minister said, emphasizing the government’s commitment to the timely completion of the broader road infrastructure project.
Prior to the Washington meetings, Minister Ngafuan led a delegation of government technocrats to Kuwait, where it was agreed that priority would be given to raising US$76 million. This funding will cover the estimated US$65 million needed to pave the 50-kilometer stretch between Konia and Voinjama and an additional US$11 million to add an extra layer of asphalt to an 81-kilometer section of the highway.
It should be recalled that earlier this year, the administration of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai secured a separate funding commitment from the African Development Bank for the Voinjama–Mendikorma stretch of the road.
The Kuwaiti Fund had previously led the same consortium of Arab lenders in 2016 to mobilize financing for the construction of the Gbarnga–Salayea Highway, demonstrating a continued commitment to Liberia’s infrastructure development.
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