MONROVIA – Liberia, a rich but poor country is not short of brilliant minds who do not only possess the credentials and charisma to serve at home but also on the international scene.
Two of the brilliant minds the country can boast of are Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, Minister of Finance and Development Planning and Boima Kamara, Ngafuan’s immediate predecessor.
The two reunited over the weekend in the same “office of the Minister of Finance and Development Planning.” Ngaf, as the current Minister of Finance is fondly called, considered it a duty and an honor to welcome his brother back to the office he recently occupied but had to leave due to health issues.
“Mr. Kamara, you have brought pride to our dear nation. You are one of the best that our motherland has produced. You have proven overtime that through you Liberia shines,” Ngafuan spoke of Kamara as he welcomed and congratulated him on his new role as the Director General of the West Africa Monetary Agency (WAMA).
Kamara is the first Liberian who is now enjoying the opportunity of serving as Director General of the sub-regional monetary and fiscal agency tasked with the responsibilities of facilitating monetary cooperation and integration within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by managing trade transactions, monitoring the ECOWAS monetary cooperation programmer, promoting policies for a single monetary zone, and conducting studies on monetary and fiscal cooperation among member states.
In 1975 WAMA was established and was by then known as a “Clearing House charged with the task of ensuring that payments facilitation was done for the ease of infra-trade.” In 1996, the sub-regional agency became known as West Africa Monetary Agency (WAMA), the title it bears today and continues to function through it. This is the organization Boima Kamara now head of, and he has begun working with Central Banks and Ministries of Finance of the fifteen (15) member states of ECOWAS, including Liberia.
Having exchanged the pleasantries, including taking of photographs, the two top-notch intellectuals expressed their depths of gratitude to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and now President Joseph Nyumah Boakai who served as Vice President to Sirleaf for twelve consecutive years (2006-2018) for affording them the opportunity to serve their country, each.
Minister Ngafuan was elated that he and Kamara shared unique educational and professional trajectory which has provided them opportunities and the ambience to demonstrate their respective service to their homeland.
In 2016 Kamara became Deputy Governor for Economic Policy at the Central Bank of Liberia after serving a lower rank role and proved himself worthy of consideration for a higher position. He was later appointed Minister of Finance and Development Planning by former President Sirleaf. He took over from Amara Konneh who is now Senator of Gbarpolu County and served until 2018.
President Joseph Nyumah Boakai appointed Boima Kamara in 2023 as his Minister of Finance but, after a little over one year of service, Kamara resigned in July of 2024 on account of poor health.
This means, Kamara and Ngafuan are the two professional individuals recorded of serving the Ministry of Finance twice, each.
Reminiscing on the invaluable moments and historic realities they share, Minister Ngafuan said he is confident that his predecessor will make significant strides at the regional agency.
“Mr. Kamara, you have brought pride to our dear nation. You are one of the best that our motherland has produced. You have proven overtime that through you Liberia shines. For me who have known you for years, we have had a common trajectory from your service at Central Bank to Finance. I remember in my past life when I was trying to bring you here (Ministry of Finance) and the Governor Mills Jones caught me on my attention and he hijacked you from me, but it was for a good purpose,” the finance minister reflected.
Ngafuan commended Kamara for recruiting professional individuals who have done and continue to do well in their respective roles at the Ministry. “To let you, I am working largely with the team you ably assemble here before leaving. I did not sack anyone neither did I bring in new people to fill the very positions those you left here occupy. I am pleased with them, and we are working smoothly. Thank you. You did a good job and as a good brother, I decided to defer to your judgment to work with the team until some prove themselves unworthy. Until that time which I do not also contemplate on hastening, I can safely say that the team is doing very well.”
He added: “As you go to the region to represent our country, we want to assure you of our fullest cooperation in ensuring that we do our part to make you to achieve the grand targets that WAMA has set for itself.
Working with Governor Henry Saamoi at the Central Bank and his team, we at the Finance Ministry we are going to buttress to ensure that Liberia plays a pivotal role in seeing you succeed.”
The WAMA delegation, led by Kamara, included his immediate predecessor, Momodou Bamba Saho, a Gambian national. Ngafuan was pleased that the outgoing director has accepted to travel with Kamara to Monrovia and other places in the sub-region as the new director tours to acquaint himself with professionals, institutions and systems he will be working along with.
The finance minister viewed the courtesy visit of Kamara as a strong symbol of positive transition and collaboration, noting of the huge the potential benefits the country stands to benefit as current and former leaders work together in advancing the nation’s goals.
Ngafuan served as Finance Minister under President Sirleaf in 2008 following the departure of Antoinette Sayeh, the position he served until 2015 when Madam Sirleaf appointed him to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs.Prior to returning to the Finance Ministry in Agust 2024, he was the Country Representative in Uganda for the African Development Bank.
The former Finance Minister, Boima Kamara, was glad that his own friend and brother of many years of professional life is back at the same Ministry of Finance where he (Kamara) served twice, too.
As the first Liberian to head WAMA, Kamara said he is cognizant of the challenges ahead but confident that with the support of all member states, especially from back home in Monrovia, he and his team will accomplish a great deal of success stories.
He pledged to represent the country with integrity on the regional stage.
As part of his vision for the future, Kamara emphasized the need for West African countries to adopt innovative solutions in addressing regional challenges, stressing that “West African problems should be solved by West Africans.”
He called for thinking “outside the box” and for the region to tackle issues such as fiscal constraints and the instability of energy supplies, which contribute to high inflation in many parts of West Africa.
Kamara also noted that the conditions driving inflation are more structural than monetary, urging for a comprehensive approach to tackling these persistent challenges.
He acknowledged the significant responsibility of achieving macroeconomic convergence in the region and outlined WAMA’s ambitious goals to work closely with Central Banks and Ministries of Finance across the fifteen (15) ECOWAS member states.
“I am humbled the more to be received in such a manner befitting the occasion. I believe today is by providence-it’s what God has ordained to happen. We take not lightly the opportunity given us to serve our country and our region. I must hasten to say that we are here today because of people who believed in us. I begin to say a big thank you to His Excellency, President Joseph Nyumah Boakai who believed in us and gave us the opportunity to serve in the capacity as Minister of Finance, and my depth of gratitude to former President Sirleaf,” Kamara disclosed.
“We all are still aspiring for a day that west Africa will come under one framework in terms of the ECOWAS monetary union that will give birth to a single currency called Eco,” he expressed hope.
Kamara promised that he will never despise the principles of integrity, honesty and hard work in the best interest of those he serves.
“You are all part of the decision-making body. We have the comity of governors encompassing CBL governors and we have the Council of Ministers where you sit as part of the supervisory body that we report to in the context of micro-economic empowerment convergence criteria,” he told Ngafuan.
He disclosed that no country in the sub-region has succeeded in meeting the targets of micro-economic empowerment convergence, something that needs to be taken seriously to ensure there is poverty reduction.
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