President George Manneh Weah on Friday, December 10, 2021 at a colorful ceremony dedicated the first post-conflict cash hub in Gbarnga, Bong County.
The cash hub, built by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), is one of four planned to be established in rural Liberia to function as a full-fledged branch of the CBL, to provide minimum banking services to commercial banks and the general public, including the collection of government revenue and the provision of other payment services for the government.
The Liberian leader used the occasion to laud the administration of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) for the project, which is aimed at creating the enabling infrastructure for the provision of efficient banking services for the people in the rural area and to further the expansion of commercial bank branches across the country.
The President noted that the cash hub will also help to create jobs for rural inhabitants, as these regional cash hubs will need to be staffed adequately to enable them to operate efficiently as branches of the CBL, and to provide banking services consistent with the demand to be met in those locations.
“This project is targeted at meeting the banking needs of everyone, but most importantly it will focus on the rural population,” President Weah said. “The commercial banks are also at the heart of this investment because it will help to drastically lessen the burden and high risks associated with their cash movements, thereby reducing their cost of doing business.”
He expressed his delight to participate in the dedication ceremony of the first regional cash hub of the CBL in Gbarnga, the capital city of Bong County.
“I am informed that this new cash hub is only the first of the CBL’s project to build modern branches of the Central Bank across the country, in line with the government’s financial sector development program,” President Weah said. “I am further informed that, initially, the project intends to build four (4) regional Central Bank branches, otherwise known as regional cash hubs, to service the needs of the government, the commercial banks, the agent networks (including mobile money operators) and the public.”
He also said each of the four regional Cash Hubs is designed to meet the minimum requirement of a central bank, and will be equipped with secured vault systems, thereby ensuring maximum security for cash and other assets of the CBL intended for safekeeping.
The President said government will also be a key beneficiary of this project, as the regional cash hubs will facilitate revenue collection and payment services for the local government, the public, and the civil servants, especially our committed and hardworking teachers and health workers.
The Liberian Chief Executive recalled that in 2019 his administration embarked upon the challenging process of initiating major reforms at the CBL, and that the process involved several critical changes in both personnel and policies.
“The new team, which was installed as a result of these changes, has done a remarkable job in bringing stability and improvement to the macro-economic and monetary environment, which was greatly challenged at the time,” the President said.
He said under the leadership of this new team “we are beginning to see the Liberian dollar gather strength and the rate of inflation fall very steeply. Other critical inventions in the economy have led to a more promising outlook, including better GDP projections.”
He thanked the new CBL team for continuing to make steady progress towards the fulfillment of the main objective and purpose of a central bank, which is to achieve and maintain price stability in the economy. We must all continue to work harder to ensure that these gains are sustained.
The Liberian Leader added, “And one of the ways that these new policy measures can be felt by ordinary people is that which we are witnessing here today: bringing banking services to the rural population. This will go a long way in facilitating much-needed development while improving people’s lives.”
As the legally-designated regulator of the banking industry, President Weah said the CBL is leading the effort on behalf of the government in support of its national development agenda, the “Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD)”, and the Executive Governor, the Board of Governors, and the management and staff of the CBL are to be commended for their leadership in this regard.