Minister Tweah Acknowledges AFRITAC Role in Liberia’s Revenue Mobilization

7th steering committee of the African Regional Technical Assistance Center (AFRITAC) in West Africa post for a photo.

Monrovia, Liberia - Liberia’s Finance and Development Planning Minister, Hon. Samuel D. Tweah Jr., has acknowledged the role of the African Regional Technical Assistance Center (AFRITAC) West 2 in strengthening domestic revenue mobilization including technical support the center provided during the Ebola Crisis in Liberia.

Minister Tweah acknowledgement was contained in a statement read by Central Bank Governor Nathaniel Patray who proxied for him at the 7th steering committee of the African Regional Technical Assistance Center (AFRITAC) in West Africa held on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 in Monrovia. 

According to the statement, AFRITAC’s work in Liberia also includes the support provided in establishing the Liberian Revenue Authority in 2014. The statement said that since 2014, the Center’s capacity development efforts have focused on giving the LRA the necessary tools to strengthen risk management, improving audit capacity, and developing standard operating procedures for better compliance management.

The statement added that Liberia has made strides in addressing an important source of fiscal risk arising from state-owned enterprises and has improved state-owned enterprise oversight function by gathering financial data and moving towards the adoption of international financial reporting standards.

Minister Tweah in the statement expressed hopes for sustained efforts to improve the volume and the quality of capacity development activities to member countries as AFRITAC-West 2 comes to the end of Phase I and embarks on a new phase.

Central Bank Governor Nathaniel Patray delivering the statement on behalf of Min. Tweah spoke about the role of the Central Bank of Liberia and emphasized that the main responsibilities of the CBL is to develop a professional, disciplined and effective workforce that is paramount in fostering public confidence and respect in the financial sector of the country.
A representative of GIZ Maurice Ocheng informed the gathering of Germany continuous support to AFRITAC and its six centers.

He added that Germany will provide 9 million Euros as support to AFRITAC for the period 2019-2020.
AFRITAC West 2 was established by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide capacity development within Cape Verde, the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone with annual meetings being hosted rotationally amongst member states.

AFRITAC interventions provide technical assistance, training, and strengthening policies to support the stabilization of economies to promote growth and reduce poverty in areas of Tax Administration, Customs Administration, Public Financial Management, Banking and Financial Sector Supervision and Regulation, including Monetary Operations, policy, and payment systems and statistics, as well as Legal frameworks.