By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
“What we have now is beyond political affiliations. We have a national calamity looming and can be prevented if we act smart now,” says Dr. Lester Tenny, a professional economist and a senior official in the CDC government.
In an article published on his Facebook page over the weekend, Dr. Tenny, who is Vice President for Technical Service at the National Oil Company (NOCAL), said the Liberian economy is highly vulnerable to various forms of shocks, saying that inflation is spiraling out of control, high interest rates, which are discouraging potential investors.
According to him, the answer to these problems “lies in our fiscal and monetary approach we adopt” and he advising his fellow CDC officials that there is capacity gap in the ranks of the ruling establishment that must be addressed.
And the Liberian Macroeconomist is calling for inclusion of other professional expertise outside of the CDC.
“Do we as a government possess all of the required expertise to successfully undertake those programs? I don’t think so,”
Dr. Tenny has reiterated his call for the CDC government to seriously prioritize agriculture as one way to take the country out of the current economic shambles.
Liberia spend a huge chunk of its foreign exchange on the importation of rice, with well over US$200 million being spent annually on importing rice mainly from Asia and the US.
“I have often argued more than 4 years ago and more than a year since we took power as a ruling party that our greatest weapon lies in the soil. Agriculture will not only identify a stable income stream but protects and insulate the economy against devastating shocks,” the senior Liberian official said.
Among other things, he is calling for “improve and increase rice production in order to reduce our imports. This will greatly reduce the repatriation of foreign currency and improve our reserves.” as a way forward.
Dr. Tenny is critical of the purchase of bonds by government as a way out of the present financial situation, something he says “are very unsafe and risky to purchase during periods of rising or unstable interest rates. The case is true for Liberia.”
Regarding the mopping up of currencies on the Liberian market, the CDC government official said such measure can only be effective if the currencies do not end up in the market.
“Currency sterilization will ensure that the mopped up currencies do not resurface in the market. However, the fragility of the economy cannot permit such policy of sterilization. The reason is the macroeconomy is fragile and weak. The temptation to reuse sterilized monies is high. “
Last year, the Liberian government infused US$25 million into the money market to reduce the high exchange and rate of inflation. But after up to US$17 million was allegedly infused, little or no impact. And the process itself, which was conducted by the Technical Economic Management Team headed by Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, ran into controversy with two international and local audit reports discovering gross discrepancies bordering on criminality.
At the same time, Dr. Lester Tenny has made a passionate appeal to his fellow CDC partisan and the government to now begin to “go beyond partisan affiliation.”
“I would advice that there is a common denominator all of us have and that is Liberia. Invite people, irrespective of their political views to add up to what we have,” the NOCAL Vice President said.
Since his inauguration over one year ago (January 22, 2019), President George Manneh Weah has come under serious criticisms in some quarters for appointing a number of inexperienced and unqualified CDC supporters to various positions in government (high and low).
Dr. Tenny wondered:
“I am not sure why some educated people are afraid to accommodate others? When the country is stabilized, we as a government will take the glory. If we fail, we take the blame. So why not we think a bit beyond and outside our respective boxes and help our president succeed?”
He ends his advice to his fellow CDC stalwarts and the government by warning it is time to put all hands on deck, if the government of Liberian international football icon-turned politician, George Weah’s government is to succeed.
“If President George Weah succeeds, Liberia wins, if he fails, Liberian fail. There is no more time to brand our brothers as hate positions ( I am not even sure where we got such words from)? This is our country and we must make it rise beyond ourselves,” he said.
Dr. Tenny then ends his article with this caveat:
“The best we can do as cdcians and officials of government is to rightly advice our president. He got a noble heart to transform this country. This is uncontested. He only needs the right and quality level of people to make his dreams a reality. Collectively, we will transform this country as Liberians and not as Cdcians or Upist or Liberty partisans or ANC.”
A team of experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last March said that instead of Liberia experiencing a 4.7 percent growth rate, the country’s economy is on a downward economic spiral in 2019, spiking a threat to the CDC government’s pro-poor agenda.
The report cited the fate of the most vulnerable in the Liberian society.
“Liberia’s economic situation is challenging, and strong policy actions will be required to maintain as favorable an outlook as anticipated at this time last year. Macroeconomic stability has proved elusive despite improved revenue collection in the first half of FY2019, and the fiscal stance has loosened significantly,” say the IMF experts in a preliminary findings released after the end of a recent visit to Liberia.