By Our Staff Writer
A group known as the Patriotic Entrepreneurs of Liberia says they will lay siege to the premises of the APM Terminals and the country’s main seaport, Freeport of Monrovia to protest, because of the foreign-contracted APM Terminals’ refusal to accept payments in Liberian dollar.
The APM Terminals Liberia operates a state-of-the-art multi-purpose port in the Freeport of Monrovia on a 25-year concession with the Government of Liberia which began in 2011.
Up to press time, the APM Terminals has not responded to the Liberian business people’s assertion and threat.
The head of the group Dominic Nimely who did not state exactly when this protest will be held, spoke of the high fees being charged and the poor services being rendered by APM Terminals to the detriment of Liberian businesses.
Mr. Nimely, who is also Chairman on Commerce and Trade at Liberia Business Association (LIBA), said the company is operating with a single crane to their inconvenience; something that compels them most times to rent cranes at extra costs from Lebanese businessmen to enable them off load their consignments timely.
He said their protest is also intended to express their dissatisfaction over the unfavorable manner in which Liberian businesses are being treated by the company at the Freeport.
“We are not happy as Liberian businesses because there is no level playing field for us despite the President telling us that he does not want us to be spectators in our own economy and that he wants us to be full participants in every aspect of it”, Nimely said.
He lamented that Liberian business people still see themselves as spectators, though he lauded President Weah’s government for the relative progress made so far in terms of implementing the Liberianization policy, saying there is still room for improvement.
The business climate in Liberia favors only foreigners and not Liberians who should be enjoying all of the preferential treatments, according to the Liberian business people..
He explained, for example, how only foreigners are often favored for construction loans as opposed to their Liberian counterparts who are often denied such loans.
“All of the story buildings you see here are all owned by foreigners because they have access to construction loans exclusively. What you don’t see happening in other countries are what you witness in Liberia”, Nimely stressed.
He said while they as Liberian entrepreneurs have only 25% purchasing power, government has ironically given a leverage of 75% to foreign business entrepreneurs, saying this is the reverse of what happens in other countries.
“When we staged a three day protest under the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf regime to protest some of these ills, she slapped us in the face by giving the Lebanese owned Farmington Hotel a 25 year tax break with other benefits,” Mr. Nimely recalled.
He reechoed that nothing will stop them from holding their pending protest even at the peril of their lives.