PHOTO: Houses Plenary and CBL headquarters in Monrovia
By M. Neywon Mengonfia, mmenginfia@gmail.com
The House of Representatives has signed and forwarded to the Liberian Senate for concurrence a resolution authorizing the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) to print new family of banknotes of over forty-eight billion Liberian dollars.
Lawmakers in the lower House reached the decision during their Tuesday plenary session at the Capitol Building in Monrovia.
According to the resolution, which was read by Deputy House Representatives Chief Clerk, Saford Geplay, the cost associated with the printing of the new family banknotes is estimated at over forty-five million United States Dollars within three years beginning 2021-2023. According to the resolution, the request when approved will see the CBL maintains some of the old denominations of L$5, L$10, L$20, L$50, L$100, L$500.
The decision was reached by more than two-third members of that august body after a motion which was raised by Montserrado County District #8 Representative from the ruling CDC party, Acarous Gray, who is also House of Representatives Chairperson on Executive.
Members of this body acted on a request made by Central Bank Governor, Aloysius Tarlue. In Governor Tarlue’s request to members of the House of Representatives in February of this year, he sought their approval to have some the L$48.733 billion new banknotes printed to replace the current family of banknotes.
In his February’s communication to that body, Governor Tarlue informed lawmakers that the money requested is needed to address the country’s current liquidity demands for three years. The Liberian Senate are to concur with their counterparts from the House of Representatives for said printing. The new family banknotes, if printed, are expected to come with high security features and designs that make it difficult to be counterfeited.
As it is now, Liberia as a country is using three different currencies, which are the United States dollars and the two separate Liberian dollars on the market.