Monrovia, Liberia – In order to improve collaboration and peer learning in the areas of debt management, budgeting, treasury management, IFMIS implementation, tax policy, and other crucial areas of public financial management (PFM), Liberia’s Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan and his Sierra Leonean counterpart Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura have pledged to strengthen their relationship.
Both ministers have decided to revive the Liberia-Sierra Leone Joint Partnership in PFM, a framework for collaboration that allowed officials and technicians from both ministries to visit each other and learn from one another from 2009 until the beginning of 2012.
The two ministers concurred that the Joint Partnership produced significant professional advantages and was a good example of south-south collaboration. Ministers Ngafuan and Bangura agreed to revive the Joint Partnership on Monday, November 25, 2024, during Minister Ngafuan’s visit to the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Finance in Freetown, at the invitation of his Sierra Leonean counterpart.
“I am delighted to welcome you, Minister Ngafuan to Freetown and to my office. For more than ten years, you have been a close friend and professional colleague. I have no doubt that our close professional relationships will result in coordinated efforts across our ministries to enhance the development outcomes of our people, ” Minister Bangura said as she opened the meeting.
During his remarks, Minister Ngafuan expressed gratitude to Minister Bangura for the meeting and the kind welcome. He emphasized, “Our people have high and pressing aspirations for development, and they turn to us as finance ministers for optimism. We must rely on one another to satisfy the expectations of our people. The main objective of our two ministries’ partnership is to make sure that we collaborate such that the stronger partner in a particular area of cooperation may assist in strengthening the weaker partner’s capabilities.”
Together with the IMF, Ministers Ngafuan and Bangura also discussed their experiences with their separate Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programs. They spoke about strategies to increase the amount of money generated domestically and increase the amount of external funding that bilateral and multilateral partners provide for development.
After President Joseph Nyuma Boakai visited to Sierra Leone for four days at the request of President Julius Maada Bio, Ministers Ngafuan and Bangura discussed and decided on important follow-up measures that their ministries should implement.
Mrs. Angela Von Ballmoos, the ambassador of Liberia to Sierra Leone, and Mr. Matthew Dingie, the former budget director of Sierra Leone and Principal Advisor to Minister Bangura on Economic and Financial Policies, were also present at the meeting.
