Liberia: LTA Headquarters Still Unfinished a Year After Promised Opening

The Liberia Telecommunications Authority's new headquarters is still a construction site more than a year after the regulator promised to open it, and the Authority has not disclosed what the building now costs after an extra floor and additional features were added to a project first estimated at US$4.6 million.

The three-story structure sits in Shefflin Township, Lower Margibi County, along the Roberts International Airport Highway and directly opposite the Edward Binyah Kesselly Military Barracks. It is being built by BMC Construction Group. The LTA said in February 2025 that the facility would be ready by June or July of that year.

"This is a promise we have made to the President and the Liberian people, and we are committed to fulfilling it," Abdullah L. Kamara, then acting chairperson of the LTA Board, said during a February 2025 tour of the site for journalists.

Kamara said then that the initial US$4.6 million estimate, which included furnishing, was expected to rise because an additional floor and other features had been incorporated into the design. He did not give a revised figure, and the LTA has not published one since.

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"I want the public to see the efforts we are making to build a state-of-the-art headquarters for the LTA. The current office does not represent the image or role of a modern telecom regulator," Kamara said at the time.

The June and July 2025 target passed without an opening. The most recent public account of the project came on May 26, 2026, when the Authority announced it had joined the Ministry of Public Works and BMC Construction Group for an inspection of what it described as the "nearly completed" headquarters. The inspection covered structural integrity, safety protocols and the installation of electrical, mechanical and information and communications technology systems, and engineers reviewed the building's network backbone, power redundancy, security installations and environmental controls.

The LTA said BMC had reaffirmed its commitment to completing the remaining phases according to approved specifications and timelines. The announcement set no opening date.

The missed deadline coincided with the collapse of the leadership that made the promise. President Joseph Nyuma Boakai suspended Kamara in June 2025 over financial transactions involving TAMMA Corporation, a company he headed, and the Liberia Digital Transformation Project, following a General Auditing Commission report. By July 2025 Boakai had removed him and nominated Clarence K. Massaquoi as LTA chairman. Kamara was later indicted by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and ordered re-arrested by Criminal Court C in the same matter.

The Authority has not made public the project's revised contract value, how much has been paid to BMC Construction Group, how much remains outstanding, what the additional floor cost, what other features were added, who approved the additional works, or how much of the building was complete when it was inspected in May.

The facility was designed to include biometric security systems using fingerprint and facial-recognition technology, a canteen, a leisure and exercise area, and a conference hall seating about 150 to 200 people, which the Authority said would reduce its need to rent outside venues. The LTA has said the completed building would serve as a central hub for spectrum management, policy formulation, consumer protection and service-quality oversight.

"If you are not properly equipped, you won't be respected. We need to project an impressive image and make meaningful investments in infrastructure," Kamara said in February 2025.

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