-Ahead of July 26 Independence Day
By our Staff Writer
As he dedicated a new modern airport terminal at Liberia’s only international airport outside Monrovia on Thursday, President George Weah has extended “special thanks” to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf under whose administration the project started.
The Roberts International Airport (RIA) passenger terminal, which cost close to some 20 million US dollars, was financed by the China EXIM Bank and construction by the China Harbor Engineering Company.
The project began in September 2016 and was funded through loans and with financing from the Saudi Fund, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and the Liberian government.
The dedication comes on the eve of Liberia’s 172nd Independence anniversary on Friday, July 26. It was on this date back in 1847 that Liberia declared itself independent, becoming the first independent black African Republic.
The newly dedicated terminal building is part of a two-prune project that included the rehabilitation of the RIA Runway totaling some US$30 million. Attached to the Terminal building are two air bridges, the first of its kind in Liberia.
When she pre-dedicated the project back in December 2017, former President Sirleaf said that the project was funded through loans and with financing from the Saudi Fund, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and the Liberian government.
“In 2006, when we assumed the leadership of the country, we were faced with several hard choices; one of those hard choices was the RIA; we faced a runway constructed in the 1970s, with no periodic maintenance and therefore largely deteriorated – causing difficulties to landing planes. We also know that we had a terminal that had been destroyed and what was being used was really most in adequate for those coming to our country for various occasions. Then we looked to other needs of the country, schools, hospitals, payroll that needed to be met and met on time continually, power and water, all the things that came out of two decades of conflict and the destruction that resulted,” former President Sirleaf noted.
With the dedication of the new RIA terminal on Thursday, the airport registered its first passenger in the New Terminal on July 25, 2019.
Deputy Information Minister for Technical Affairs, Boakai Fofana said she is Madam Famatta Denise Dogba-Yassah, who became first passenger to access the new terminal upon arrival from Accra,