Liberia and Canada Renew Economic Cooperation

Nairobi, Kenya - The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Hon. Boima S. Kamara, on the sideline of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Board Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, held a bilateral meeting with the Canadian Ambassador to the African Union, H.E. Mr. Ben Marc Diendere.

The two officials shared long existing economic and diplomatic relationship between the two countries and expressed interest to strengthen economic cooperation. Ambassador Diendere expressed Canadian government’s interest to engage the African Union to change the narrative and provide opportunities for the economic growth of Africa.

He pointed out Canada’s interest to finance the AfDB, engage member countries in the areas of human capital development through TVET for youth development, SMEs development, climate resilience and food security.

The Canadian Ambassador to the African Union expressed Canada’s concentration to expand African economy through agriculture, agro-business and value chain to reduce poverty.

He encouraged Liberia to watch out for risks in seabed mineral resources negotiations.

For his part, Hon. Kamara expressed President Boakai’s vision to expand the economy with vested interest in agriculture and infrastructure financing as game changer for economic growth of Liberia.

He called for cooperation with Canada in the areas of private sector development, mining and carbon market development, domestic resources mobilization and SMEs development to enable inclusive and sustainable growth of the Liberian economy.

He emphasized the need for members of the G-7 nations to increase private sector financing to low-income countries and remove the use of GDP conditionality for lending to poor countries.

The Liberian Finance Minister added that private sector financing and jobs creation in Africa will reverse the migration challenges being experienced by developed nations.

Furthermore, the Minister suggested that multilateral financial institutions improve financing architecture to focus on growth enabling sectors in developing countries through public-private sector mobilization.

Hon. Kamara and Ambassador Diendere then agreed to renew cooperation and strengthen relationship to mobilize financing support for President Boakai’s ARREST agenda.