Africa lacks rural accessibility

Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, says accessibility to rural communities in Africa is still a problem for the continent to adequately harness its natural resources and use them for the benefit of the African people.

He says there must be a road network as a precondition for the promotion of health, education, agriculture, power and other critical areas that are vital to the survival of the rural peoples, noting that with the fulfillment of this basic requirement, Africans will be in the position to turn their resources around for the benefit of their nations and peoples.

According to him, lack of access to rural population means development programs cannot be implemented, something that has consistently undermined the living standard of the people. Vice President Boakai spoke Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at his Capitol Building office when he received in audience the Israeli Ambassador to Liberia, Ami Mehl with residence in Accra Ghana, the Chief Executive Officer of Northwest Oil and Gas, Michael Ende and Professor Tanko Mouhamadou of Bridgin Foundation, accompanied by the Assistant Minister for Afro-Asian Affairs, Rosetta Jackollie. 

Vice President Boakai pointed out that the rural population must be given the opportunity to make use of their lands and stressed that through agriculture, the African continent could experience rapid development and growth, especially when local agricultural produce are processed and exported.

He warned that inadequate and untimely funding for investments in agriculture is another obstacle for small and medium scale agricultural programs and that for such programs to succeed investors must understand that there are systems and conditions that are not applicable to Africa.

The delegation informed the Vice President that their objective is to create conditions of development in sub-Saharan Africa, through the provision of funds without sovereign guarantees and spoke of plans for the creation of centers of excellence with Liberia highly favored for the pilot project.

The delegation further informed the Vice President that forty five percent of the profits will go to humanitarian projects in the country and another 45 percent re -injected in the local economy.

According to Professor Tanko Mouhamadou, who is also President and Chief Executive Officer of Bridgin Foundation based in Belgium, Africans must take the initiatives to bring development to the continent, have a vision to transform their nations, and stressed that Westerners will not do the job for Africans.

Earlier, Vice President Boakai welcomed Ambassador Mehl to Liberia and spoke of the cordial ties subsisting between Liberia and the Middle East Nation dating back as far as 1948. He recounted the building of the Executive Mansion, the Agrimeco Agricultural Rice Project in the 1970s and the Defense Ministry Project in the 1980s, among other investments.