Africa-Press – Liberia. The Department of Economic Management at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), has launched a one-stop-shop online platform to enhance the accreditation and registration process of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Liberia.
The launch of the new platform is intended to make business registration easy. Prior to the launch, the process of registration and accreditation for NGOs was done manually and took weeks to complete.
The Assistant Minister for Economic Policy, James Na-Kulah Dorbor Sao, said that following concerns expressed by partners about the long processes they had to go through, the department of economic management at MFDP decided to create this one-stop framework in order to ensure that doing business in Liberia is easy.
Deputy Finance Minister for Economic Management, Augustus J. Flomo, who gave an overview of the online platform, said the government is moving to another level of doing business in the country.
Flomo termed the launch as a milestone in managing information in the donor community and said the government had a number of engagements across the NGO community and they complained about the processes and bottlenecks they went through registering from the sectoral ministries and over to the Ministry of Finance.
“Under the National Aid and NGO policy,” he said, “it is required that institutions working in the development space should be known in order to get recognition from the government so they can align their projects with the government’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.”
Flomo explained that it was important to collaborate and coordinate in making life easier from the manual system, which had been challenging, to a more efficient online digital platform for transparency and accountability in the development space.
Flomo noted that the new platform will save transport costs and reduce people-to-person interaction as the system is linked with tax institutions to enable users to log in with their tax identification number.
“This system will promote transparency, accountability, and efficiency in the development space. It will ensure well-coordinated sector engagements where work plans will be moving fast, and it is a way of encouraging NGOs to continue working with the PAPD,” he added.
Flomo revealed that with the platform, partners and institutions around the world can have access to information about the work non-governmental institutions are doing in Liberia.
He expressed his delight with the platform’s creation, adding that his team is grateful for the accomplishment.
Flomo said institutions that are operating manually will have until December 31, 2022, to move their work and plans online through the system for tracking purposes.
He also used the occasion to thank the African Development Bank (AfDB) for its continuous support to the Liberian government.
At the same time, AfDB Country Manager, Benedict Sorie Kanu, lauded the MFDP team for the innovation aimed at making the work of NGOs easy. Mr. Kanu hopes that institutions will make better use of the platform.
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