The ECOWAS Commission, in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the MRU held the 7th Joint Technical Steering Committee Meeting of the Multinational; Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Liberia Road Development and Transport Facilitation Program within the MRU in Monrovia from July 9-10, 2024.
The 2-day discussed solutions to constraints and challenges, and agreed on ways to accelerate the project.
The Ag. Director of Transport of the ECOWAS Commission, Chris Appiah, represented by the Project Manager, Ashoke Maliki, welcomed members of the JTC to the 7th meeting of the committee.
He stressed that the implementation of the program is hinged on the commitment and inputs of the experts to the various components of the project which includes rehabilitation of road as well as the construction of a bridge over Cavalla River.
He enjoined member states to freely discuss the challenges of their components with the hope that the commit-tee will proffer solutions.
In her opening remarks, the Resident Representative of the President of the ECOWAS Commission in Liberia, Josephine Nkrumah, highlighted that considerable progress has also been made on the design of the two Joint Border Posts (JPBs) at Prollo and Gbaplue, and the construction of a Bridge over Cavalla River, which are the key components being implemented by the ECOWAS Commission.
On the Bridge component, the contract for the works has been awarded and physical works is expected to commence in September 2024 with completion period of 24 months.
“This regional project will no doubt benefit road users, transporters, farmers, the program area inhabitants and especially the disadvantaged groups (women and children), which constitute the greater majority in the program area,” she added
The Multinational Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Liberia: Road Development and Transport Facilitation Program within the Mano River Union will cover 276.35 km of roads linking Danané-Lola (87.35 km); Bloléquin-Toulépleu-Liberian border (65 km); Tabou-Prollo/Cavally (28 km); Karloken-Fish Town (80 km) and Harper Junction-Cavally (16 km) to ensure that they are paved in order to increase their capacity to receive traffic throughout the year.
This Program being financed by the AfDB will reduce poverty, promote agriculture and intra trade amongst Member States of the Program area and is part of ECOWAS priority development programs for the region.
