With just days to the start of campaign for the October 10, 2023 Presidential and Legislative Election in the country, the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) has outlined what it calls major achievements by the government under President George M. Weah.
According to the ruling party, President Weah has made significant progress since taking office in 2018 in all areas of the nation including health, education, youth development, gender equality, and social protection, as well as microeconomic growth (monetary and fiscal policies), food and fuel price stability, energy, infrastructure, agriculture and forestry, poverty and growth profile, human rights and the rule of law, national security, social inclusion, and traditional practices.
In the area of health, the CDC named the construction of the Emirates Hospital in Western Liberia (Gbapolu County), the construction of the 14 Military hospital and eight hospitals in southeast Liberia, the ongoing construction of the Redemption Hospital in Caldwell, increment in doctors' monthly salary from US$700 to US$2,000; the addition of 2,500 health workers to the government payroll after the Donors Health Pool dried up; provided specialist training for more than fifty (50) doctors' regularization and increment of salaries for over 500 supplementary health workers, vaccinated over 80% of Liberians against COVID-19 and 3rd best performance in containing COVID-19 in West Africa and 7th best in Africa and the provision of advanced home-based specialist training for over 101 doctors.
On education, they pointed to the provision of Free Public University /college education benefiting over 30,000 students yearly, free WASSCE that benefits more than 80,000 students yearly (Grades 9 & 12), commenced the construction of 28 High Schools and 18 Early Childhood Schools, gave 3,500 supplementary teachers permanent status on the government payroll, increased the salary of 3,500 supplementary teachers from L$8,000 to US$125, added 1,300 teachers and guidance counselors to the Government payroll and the digitization of the University of Liberia and registration.
In the area of youth development and gender and social protection, they also pointed to the construction of the Invincible Park and renovated all major Sports Pack in the country, renovated SKD Stadium for under US$3 million when UP used US$20 million, invested in TVET in six counties and expanded to all 15 counties, invested over US$1 million in transforming At-Risk Youths, invested in SGBV roadmap and established a task force and Call Center for an effective reporting system, improved reporting on rape cases, which is mistaken for an increase in rape cases, and building Trust with Traditional Leaders on Female Genital Mutilation.
In the area of microeconomic stability and growth-monetary and fiscal policies, the party named the reestablished macro stability after inheriting a weak macro foundation from JNB's Unity Party, reformed governance at the Central Bank of Liberia, giving credibility to the new Central Bank of Liberia, rebuilt and protected net international reserves from the lows of the past administration, undertook a reform of the Liberian currency with the printing of L$48 billion including coins, established a remarkable exchange rate stability, brought down inflation from a high of 30% to 7%, which is lower than where the past government left inflation in 2018; the fastest inflation collapses in recorded the history of Liberia.
They also pointed to the raising of the highest level of domestic revenue and passed the biggest-ever national budget recorded in history in 2022, recognized hidden past government debt to the Central Bank of Liberia; fixed and rationalized total debt to the CBL, resolved all legacy debt owed by the Unity Party led government to banks and the private sector and increased Government credit rating, stabilized the financial sector on the brink of insolvency from poor regulatory oversight from the UP era, ended borrowing from the CBL to pay Government salary, reformed a broken wage system from past administrations thereby saving US$32 million annually, reformed the salary of 15,000 government workers during harmonization and reformed the salary of 13,000 government workers since and after harmonization.
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On the stability of rice, Liberia's staple diet, the party said President Weah kept the price of rice at US$13 per 25kg bag for almost five (5) years, forfeited over US$10 million in revenue annually in fuel taxes to keep fuel prices low due to COVID and Ukraine war and spent US$14 million over 2 budget years to support the import of rice due to COVID and the Ukraine war.
On the issues of fuel and energy prices stability, they spoke of the connectivity of 140,000 households or 800,000 people to the LEC grid since 2018, invested more than US $65 million to bring the electrify from Cote D'Ivoire through the CLSG lines and reduced the cost of electricity from U$35 cents per kilowatt hour to US 21 cents per kilowatt hour.
On infrastructure and road, they alluded to the building of more than 233 km of primary roads between 2018-2022, connected Ganta-Harper by paved road, constructed more than 116 km of urban community roads and commenced construction of the RIA highway.
