Cities Alliance Empowers Liberian CBEs to Collect Dirt in Greater Monrovia
Samuel G. Dweh
In recent times Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia, has been receiving a barrage of condemnations from the majority of residents — including VIP foreigners — on the ‘horrible environmental feature’ of the entire municipality.
The city’s environmental feature has been this way since the end of the country’s civil war over 14 years ago, defying the sanitation efforts of each of the country’s three post-civil war governments. It’s the same story with other urbanized municipalities across the country.
Fortunately, the Cities Alliance with funding from the European Union, through the program entitled, “Delivering Climate Resilient Solid Waste Management Services in Greater Monrovia, Liberia through Community Based Enterprises”, have stepped into supporting the primary solid waste collection services through loans provided to Liberian environmental organizations classified as Community-Based Enterprises (CBEs)
On the 13th of October 2021, Cities Alliance gathered the Government of Liberia, private environmental organization, and the Media at the Bella Casa Hotel in Sinkor, Monrovia for a one-day event to launch and disburse the Microfinance Loan Facility to 21 CBEs/SMEs working in the waste sector.
Giving the Welcome Remark, the Government of Liberia, represented by Madam Paulita C.C. Wie, Deputy Minister of Urban Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Chairperson of the Liberia Country Program Steering Committee, thanked EU and its International Partners for being concerned about environmental concerns of Liberia’s Capital City and for offering financial assistance for transformation. “The loan isn’t for purchasing clothes or for merry-making,” Minister Wie cautioned the recipients in her remarks on behalf of the Government of Liberia.
She said the bad environmental feature of Greater Monrovia is due to over-population and the indiscriminate waste disposal habits of most residents.
“Monrovia was laid out centuries ago to accommodate a few thousand persons, but now the population of Monrovia is over two million,” she said. Speaking further, Madam Wie warned those qualified for the loan against mis-use. “The Government will prosecute persons who collected the loan from the facility and fail to do the work for which they collected the money,” she said.“This project will be extended to other Counties’ cities if it’s successful in the Nation’s Capital, Monrovia,” Minister Wie added.
Explaining the Microfinance and Disbursement component of the event at the Bella Casa Hotel, Mr. Prince G. Williams, Grants Officer of UNOPS—Cities Alliance, said the amount to be given to CBEs range between five thousand and fifteen thousand United States dollars (US$5,000 and US$15,000), and equal installment repayment begins December 1, 2021 and ends March 3, 2023 at an interest rate of 1% per annum.
Mr. Francisco M. J. Lopez, Country Programme Manager of UNOPS/Cities Alliance, said the loan facility being implemented in Liberia is a pilot project and its success depends on the passionate involvement of all major Liberian stakeholders.
The General Manager of Ecobank Liberia, Mr. George Mensah Asante, said heads of CBEs qualified for the loan through his Institution are not required to give collateral for the loan provided.
Mr. Garneo Jusu Abraham, a proxy for Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Tamba Koijee, said the European Union’s support to the waste sector adds value to the work undertaken by the city corporation to make the city clean, green, and safe.
The Mayor of the Paynesville City Corporation, Madam E. Pam Belcher Taylor, represented by Ms. Hawa Dee Sheriff, Head of Human Resource Director, said the EU’s financial intervention will make her leadership “more engaged” on its waste management practices in Paynesville.
Madam Maria Kantardjieva, Deputy Head for Finance, Contracts & Audit Section of the European Union Delegation to Liberia, urged Liberians to impress the EU and Cities Alliance with proper use of the loan.
Samuel G. Dweh is a freelance journalist and president of, Liberia Association of Writers (LAW). He can be reached via phone: 0886618906, 0776583266; and email: samuelosophy@yahoo.com, samuelosophy1@mail.com.