Liberia is among eight African nations to benefit from an African Development Bank (AfDB) grant that stands at an amount of €1.2 million.
The purpose of this grant is to help these countries institute effective resource mobilization in the area of mining. According to the Bank, the project is intended to train policymakers in resource-rich countries in order to help improve revenues collection in the mining sector.
The beneficiary countries of the first stage of the project are Liberia, Guinea, Niger, Mali, Madagascar, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
The Bank’s Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Complex approved this first-of its kind grant from the Transitional Support Facility for the project on Financial Modelling for the Extractive Sector (FIMES) during last December.
The project will be implemented in Africa’s transitional countries from 2020 to 2022.
The FIMES project will train policymakers responsible for the extractive sector to realise greater returns from natural resource investments in their countries.
The Bank’s African Natural Resources Centre (ANRC) will implement the pilot project in the eight beneficiary countries.
“Africa’s transitional countries need to build state capacity to mobilize revenues from natural resource investments, to address reconstruction, infrastructure and socio-economic priorities.
“The FIMES project will equip transitional countries with the right skills and knowledge to enhance domestic resource mobilization for accelerated growth and sustainable development,” said Vanessa Ushie, Manager of the Policy Analysis Division in the African Natural Resources Centre.
She added that the project is timely for the continent given the strategic importance of natural resource revenues for building peace, stability, and resilience in transitional settings, for the Bank and the beneficiary countries.
African Development Bank research shows that many African governments do not extensively use financial models to inform investment decisions, or monitor revenue flows from extractive industry concessions, leading to significant revenue losses for states.
The FIMES project has been informed by the Bank’s Strategy for addressing fragility and building resilience, its Governance Strategic Framework and Action Plan, and Human Development Strategy.
More broadly, the FIMES initiative will support the implementation of African countries’ natural resource development plans, which will further contribute to the achievement of the Bank’s High 5s, AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by boosting domestic resource mobilization from Africa’s natural resource sector.
According to the most recent Liberia Geological Survey (LGS) conducted, Liberia has important economic deposits of iron ore, gold and diamonds with considerable potential for additional discoveries.
It said a wide range of other mineral resources are present, including minerals with known economic potential, within the territorial borders of Liberia, which consist of barite, bauxite, manganese, heavy mineral sands, phosphate, kaolin-rich clay and sills sand, among-st others.
– APA
