MONROVIA – The National Port Authority (NPA) has launched an ambitious five-year strategic plan (2025–2030), outlining a $550 million blueprint to modernize Liberia’s port system and position it as a key driver of national economic growth. The plan seeks to transform the country’s ports from mere revenue collection points into efficient, technology-driven trade hubs that anchor Liberia’s development agenda.
The formal launch ceremony, held in Monrovia, brought together senior government officials, legislators, development partners, and private sector stakeholders. The event was described as a major step in aligning state institutions with President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development.
In a keynote address, Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Hon. Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, underscored the centrality of strategic planning in achieving national transformation. Drawing an analogy between strategic planning and constructing a house, he said a strong foundation was essential to prevent collapse “like a pack of cards.”
“If you do not plan well, you will fail well,” Minister Ngafuan stated. “You need big thinking. You need big dreams… but it’s one thing to have the plan, it’s another thing to work the plan.”
The Minister highlighted that the NPA’s strategic framework goes beyond institutional improvement, representing a critical step in tackling the country’s cost-of-living challenges. By improving operational efficiency and reducing vessel turnaround time, he said, the cost of imports would decline—ultimately lowering market prices for ordinary Liberians.
“The amount they charge for goods and services will drop,” he explained. “And people who are buying goods and services will pay less. The amount they save will make them able to buy bread and butter.”
Ngafuan further connected the NPA’s plan to broader government interventions such as road construction and power generation, stressing that all are part of a synchronized push to structurally transform Liberia’s economy. He acknowledged public impatience for quick results but urged understanding, likening the process to rescuers pulling a child from a deep hole—where progress may not be visible immediately but is steadily being made.
The Finance Minister also praised the growing role of Liberian consultancy firms, including the one that helped craft the NPA plan, and pledged to review procurement rules that unfairly limit their participation in national contracts.
“The best medical doctor had a time to learn,” he noted. “If you don’t give someone the first surgery, that person may never ever become the best expert.”
Speaking earlier, NPA Managing Director Hon. Sekou A. M. Dukuly described the strategic plan as a bold redefinition of the Authority’s mission and vision.
“Far too long, our ports have been seen as mere revenue collection points. Today, we are changing that narrative,” Dukuly declared. “Our ports are hubs for trade facilitation, anchors of economic growth, models for national development, and robust stations for job creation.”
Hon. Dukuly said the plan, branded under the theme “RESET,”is built on five pillars—reforming governance and empowering regional ports, enhancing operational efficiency, strengthening financial management and revenue diversification, establishing an inland container terminal, and transforming and modernizing port infrastructure—to position Liberia’s ports as engines of trade and national growth.
He emphasized that the RESET Agenda is not just an internal reform blueprint but a call to national action.
“We launch this document not just as a plan, but as a clear vision to build our port system and attract foreign direct investment,” he concluded. “This plan will facilitate trade and commerce that will lead our nation’s economic revival.”
The launch of the NPA Strategic Plan (2025–2030) marks one of Liberia’s most decisive steps in recent years toward transforming its maritime infrastructure, expanding trade capacity, and unlocking the ports’ potential as engines of inclusive and sustainable growth.
