School Principal Welcomes ETON, EBOMAF Loan Agreements

By Moses M. Tokpah (Margibi County)

The Principal of the Kakata Community College, Anthony M. Jallah has welcomed the signing of the Eton and EBOMAF loan agreements by the Liberian Government.

Jallah on Wednesday June 27, 2018 told our reporter that the signing of the agreements will bring relief to the Liberian people especially so it has to do with the construction and building of the already deplorable roads the country has.

The Principal said Liberia is represented by some wise men and women at the level of the National Legislature that are pushing the interest of the citizens of the country and there is no way that Liberia can achieve total development in the absence of roads.

According to him, there are greater portions of Liberia and citizens of the country that have been deprived of their inalienable rights especially those residing in the southeastern region.

“Those of us that come from Lofa County, because our towns and villages are extremely inaccessible for the fact that roads are not available and where you will find roads they are not easily pliable so it is commendable for this country to begin negotiating for loans with the intention of making sure that we can have some of our roads improve; we only hope that these loans will not drive us into national bankruptcy,” Jallah asserted.

He however, cautioned that the government be careful about how it is loaning its citizens because according to him; those loans that are coming into the country will have to be paid by the citizens. The KCC boss further noted that it is not a bad idea to take a loan on grounds that Liberians cannot just survive on the national revenue the country generates, but should be done based on the performance reports of loans that have been taken already.

He said as the loans are taken and expended and performance reports are reviewed and it shows that it is positive, then the country can go ahead to borrow more loans with the hope of opening up the country to speedy development.

Anthony Jallah also recommended that loan can be borrowed to improve the educational and health sectors, train doctors to avoid foreigners and aliens coming into the country serving as doctors amidst the competing priorities the country has.

He narrated that the government cannot only conform herself to roads, stating that while roads are opening up, the government can be thinking about improving the educational sector by obtaining loan to construct more schools and making sure that there is furniture in those schools.

The private school administrator said most of the schools in Liberia are completely out of Instructional materials. He noted that loan can also be borrowed to increase the salary of civil servants looking at the day-by-day increasing U.S. rate with civil servants earning between eight to fifteen thousand Liberian dollars terming it as a joke in Liberia.

The principal at the same time informed critics who preferred the reduction of U.S. rate over the taking of loan for the construction of roads that it is not possible to reduce rate and prices when the country is not prepared to export some of its essential commodities expressing the need for Liberian financiers to begin doing their jobs.

He added that it is about time that the Government of Liberia opens her eyes because Liberians are seeing lots of illegal extraction of the country’s mineral resources which is giving the country no financial income and as the result it makes it difficult to eradicate the continuous hiking of the exchange rate.

Jallah averred that there is a need for an economy decision to be taken, adding ‘why it is true that you may be throwing some people out of job; but we should make it the sole prerogative of the banks in this country because it is some of the banks that are making businesses and taking the U.S. dollars out of the banks on grounds that the exchange rate at the banks is little reasonable and affordable, they are sending it to the street venders to be able to transact inside’ he explained.

He called on Liberians to open up and be patriotic to the Country which is far under developed and also be realistic to what they are doing or else Liberia will not yield the necessary development.