LIPA constructs permanent headquarters

The Liberia Institute of Public Administration or LIPA is constructing a modern complex for its future home in Doemah Town along the Robertfield Highway in Margibi County.

The complex, which will be the entity’s new training center, is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development or USAID. Titled “Shine Project”, it is aimed at creating sustainable high impact infrastructure for education and agriculture.

“Holding all factors constant, the project which is valued close to US$4.5 million is expected to be completed by November 2018,” says Smartz Pro Engineering, the firm executing the project.

Speaking to the media during a guided tour of the site in Margibi County, LIPA Director General Oblayon Blayon Nyemah emphasizes the importance of capacity building, which he says will be further enhanced by his entity having its own facility.

The uniqueness of the facility Nyemah observes is its location especially in an environment that encompasses all of the conditions needed for a conducive learning environment, and one that allows students to concentrate on their lessons.

“This structure will capture everything that is useful, comprehensive, conducive and technologically advanced to help us meet the requirement for capacity in Liberia”, he notes.

The imagined condition is probably the contrary of their current rented facility on Old CID Road, Mamba Point in Central Monrovia.While he refuses to dwell on the historicity of the project, Nyemah praises the U.S. Government and people for what he says the entity has long being praying for, hoping that the project is executed in an orderly fashion so that Liberia would eventually boost of its own capacity building infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Project Coordinator Florence Dukuly, discloses that the modern facility is being built on 25 acres of land.She says the construction enhances Liberia’s membership with the Management Development Institutes of Africa, further detailing that the facility will include staff quarter, bus station and a student center, among others.

She lauds LIPA per-circle enrollment, which according to her, has risen to over 500 with two circles completed this year. LIPA was founded in 1969 by an act of the Liberian Legislature, but became fully operational in 1971. LIPA provides capacity building in research, consultancy and information services for public and civil servants.

By Ballah M. Kollie – Editing by Jonathan Browne