The Government of Liberia through the Department of Economic Management at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, has launched a one-stop shop online platform to enhance the accreditation and registration process of non-governmental organizations in the country, on August 18, 2022.
Prior to the launch, the process of registration and accreditation for NGOs were done manually, and took weeks to complete.
But following appeals from partners about the long processes they had to go through, the department of economic management at the Ministry of Finance and Development planning decided to create this one-stop framework in making and working to do business in Liberia easy, according to Assistant Minister for Economic Policy, James Na-Kulah Dorbor Sao.
Giving an overview of the new system, Deputy Finance Minister for Economic Management, Augustus J. Flomo, said the government is moving to another level of doing business in the country.
Minister 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 that they complained about the processes and bottlenecks they go through registering from the sectoral, ministries and over to the Ministry of Finance.
“Under the National Aid and NGO policy it is required that institutions working in the development space should be known in order to get recognition from the government so that they can align their projects with the government’s Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development,” Flomo said.
The Deputy Finance Minister 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.
Moreover, Flomo noted that with the new platform, it will save transport cost, reduce persons to persons’ 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,” Flomo added.
He revealed that with the platform, partners and institutions around the world can have access to information about the works that non-governmental institutions are doing in Liberia.
He expressed delight with the creation of the platform, adding that his team is grateful for the achievement and said that institutions which are operating manually, will have until December 31, 2022 to move their work and plans online through the system for tracking purposes.
