Printing Money Not Solution to Liberia’s Financial Crisis

The Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia Aloysius Tarlue has disclosed that the printing of new currency is not the only solution to Liberia’s financial crisis but rather digitization is the way forward. 

Governor Tarlue continued that the government uses millions of dollars to print five and ten Liberian dollars (LRD) notes that the citizens have no value for and as such, the country must move toward the realization of a cashless economy.

He made the remarks on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, at a one-day National Payment Systems Stakeholders’ forum, held under the topic, “Digitizing Government Payments: Accelerating the Cash Lite Agenda Across the Country.” 

The objective of the forum is to identify key approaches to accelerate digital payments for the Government of Liberia nationwide as a means of minimizing the financial exclusion gap. It was facilitated by Mr. Archie Hesse, consultant at CBL and a Ghanaian technologist guru. 

The forum, which took place at the CBL’s auditorium on Ashmun Street, was attended by stakeholders from the private sector including Lonestar Cell MTN, LTA, Libtelco, an association of money exchangers, commercial bankers, and the business communities, respectively.  

“This is Liberia’s project. We need to take ownership of it. It doesn’t matter who made what contribution to making this a success. It is about sustainability. Donors can give you all the money but you have to take charge of it. This is what we need to do,” he said in his opening statement.

According to him, the forum is long overdue and is being credited to the UNDP, the World Bank, AfDB because there are the ones that made the forum possible including the Ministry of Finance, the Liberia Revenue Authority, and all other financial institutions, among others. 

He said, “Printing money is not the solution to this country’s financial crisis. Digitization is the way forward. We use millions of Dollars to print five and ten dollar notes that we have no value for."

The CBL Executive Governor told the participants that the banking system has been doing well but the COVID-19 pandemic affected them deeply, people refused to go to the banks and this is why it is very relevant that as a country adopt this new system.

The system, Governor Tarlue said, can be used even on phones and anywhere, instead of traveling from long distances in search of banks because this will help. 

“Through your phone, you can easily access your money and transact any business. We are ninety percent plus people unbanked in this country. This means, our people are not using the bank, even though there are only nine banks in the country,” he revealed.

The CBL boss said though there are fifteen counties in the country, only five of them do not have any bank, and all the people in those counties, where there are no banks have no access to the banking system. 

He further explained that ordinary people have their phones where their families abroad or here in Monrovia can send them money and through their phones, they can come into the banking system.

Said Governor Tarlue: “If that is done, it gives data quality. Sometimes we project numbers but we don’t know how we get the numbers, whether they are real or not. But you can track the information on the phone. National financial inclusion plan for CBL 2019-2023 is in action.”

The national payment systems plan, according to Governor Tarlue, is about including everybody in the system.

In remarks, World Bank Country Manager to Liberia, Mr. Khwima Nthara, said coming to the bank as a mission is to help member countries eradicate extreme poverty as well as promote shared prosperity.  

According to him, the national electronic payment switch systems are part of the country, key infrastructures that are required to produce goods and services that they will need.

He said a good and a well financial system is very critical to promoting economic activities in the country as well as ensuring that people have access to those goods and services.

Mr. Nthara also said that he was very excited about the national payment systems and committed to supporting the process that will benefit Liberia, especially the poor people in the village.

For his part, Mr. Stephen A. Rodrigues, UNDP Resident Representative, acknowledged the CBL Executive Governor for successfully organizing such a forum.

He said the national payment system is rarely a game-changing program for Liberia and “we are very glad to be part of this joint initiative with the World Bank and African Development Bank as well as the Ministry of Finance, CBL in the lead that is making everything possible to transform Liberia's economy.”

The UNDP Country Representative said the forum yesterday was not just about the national payment switch, it is about helping move Liberia deeper into that digital space — helping to move further by the industrial revolution so that we can see the unlocking of the potential of Liberian businesses and people in the coming decades. 

He said the platform creates a whole new ecosystem, innovation, competition, reducing costs for customers and for the average citizens to pay their public fees including government taxes but it also makes it transparent, reduces corruption, among others.

Meanwhile, serving as panelists were Internal Affairs Minister Varney A. Sirleaf, Janga A. Kowo, Comptroller and Accountant General of Liberia, Mr. John B.S. Davies, president of Liberia Bankers Association and CEO/LBDI and Cllr. N. Oswald Tweh, president of Liberia Chamber of Commerce, among others.