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Liberia’s financial sector faces a number of challenges, including insufficient ICT infrastructure. The existing payment infrastructure deployed in 2016 has served the country well over the past six years, but requires urgent upgrading.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) will finance the project to upgrade Liberia’s infrastructure and payment systems. The board of directors of the African Development Fund, the AfDB’s concessional loan window, approved on Friday, March 17 a donation of $3.9 million for this purpose.
“Modernization of Liberia’s infrastructure and payment systems to improve payment efficiency will not only strengthen the formal financial sector, but will contribute to greater financial stability and better development of the private sector,” said Benedict Kanu, the African Development Bank’s country office manager in Liberia.
According to the AfDB press release, funding will target automated cheque processing systems and the automated clearing house, as well as real-time raw settlement systems that are the backbone of payment processing in the country’s financial sector.
It will also allow the upgrade of the main data center of the Central Bank of Liberia and should have an impact on the institution and departments involved in payments.
The main objective is to strengthen the payments ecosystem in Liberia for increased efficiency and to promote growth and innovation, as well as financial inclusion, which currently stands at 44.2% according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 database.
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