PARIS, France — Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan says Liberia’s National Payment Switch—an IT backbone being procured by the Central Bank—will go live next year to let importers pay and clear goods without physically visiting the port, a reform he says will reduce demurrage, speed up clearance, and lower prices for consumers.
Ngafuan said President joseph Nyuma Boakai convened all stakeholders, including the World Bank, to break delays on the project and is “impatient with the pace.” In the interim, port working hours have been extended to 11 p.m., with truck queues stretching toward Logan Town as authorities push faster turnaround times.
The Minister said officials are also “thinking big” about new port capacity as cargo volumes rise and the economy outgrows current facilities. He linked customs efficiency directly to household costs: “The longer your container spends in the port, the demurrage will increase… and you pass it on to consumers.”
The reform drive follows complaints from diaspora traders who say clearance costs and procedures push them to route containers through Guinea, undercutting Liberia’s revenue base. Ngafuan said the administration is tackling bottlenecks so commerce flows through Liberian ports and benefits local businesses and the treasury.
