By Grace Q. Bryant
The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, has announced that the 28,200 government employees, representing 45% of the public workforce, will benefit from salary increases under the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, starting in January.
Speaking at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism regular press briefing in Monrovia, Ngafuan explained that the funds will ensure that no central government employee earns less than the $150 monthly minimum wage mandated by the Decent Work Act of 2015.
Ngafuan revealed that the initiative follows President Joseph Boakai’s directive authorizing more than $16 million to address remuneration concerns in the public sector.
This move is part of a broader multi-year effort aimed at improving pay conditions for government employees.
“We have allocated funds to ensure that beginning January, 2025, no central government employee earns monthly gross salaries below the US$150 minimum as provided for in the Decent Work Act of 2015,” he said.
The FY2025 draft budget, currently under review by the 55th Legislature, totals $851.8 million, an increase of $112.9 million or 15.3% over the 2024 budget. Among its priorities are salary adjustments for classroom teachers, health workers, and Liberia National Police officers.
He stated that nearly $3 million will go toward adjusting salaries for 200,000 teachers with C-Certificates, B-Certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees, ensuring their pay align with their qualifications. In the health sector, specialist doctors are set to receive an additional $225 per month to bring their salaries in line with their professional grades.
Nurses, midwives, and physician assistants will receive monthly top-ups of $50, while other health workers will see increases ranging from $25 to $40, depending on their roles.
“We have allocated US$2.6 million in the FY2025 budget to enable the Ministries of Health and Education to begin the multi-year process of addressing the perennial issues of volunteer workers after an exhaustive and thorough vetting exercise. We recognize that the cost to fully put all volunteer workers on the payroll is very high hovering around US$15 million, which the Government cannot fully afford in FY 2025 given the competing demands on the fiscal space,” he emphasized.
He added, “We have also allocated nearly US$3 million dollars in the draft budget for FY 2025 to ensure that beginning January 2025, nearly two thousand teachers with C-Certificates, B-Certificates, Associate and Bachelor’s degrees who are currently being paid below their respective pay grades, will receive salaries commensurate with their qualifications.”
He further explained, “We have allocated funds in the draft FY 2025 budget, to add at least US$225 beginning January 2025 to the salaries of specialist doctors in the health sector who are being paid below their pay grades as the first action in the direction of fully regularizing their pay.”
The minister also noted that security personnel, including soldiers from the Armed Forces of Liberia, Executive Protection Service officers, and police officers, along with agricultural extension workers, will benefit from monthly salary top-ups ranging from $30 to $40.
Ngafuan stressed that, in total, these adjustments will positively impact 28,200 government workers.
Addressing the long-standing issue of volunteer workers in the Ministries of Health and Education, Ngafuan announced that $2.6 million has been allocated to begin a multi-year process of providing fair remuneration for these workers following a thorough vetting process.
The minister also unveiled plans for the government’s first-ever implementation of the National Security Act of 2015, which mandates insurance coverage for all active-duty police officers.
Ngafuan stated that more than 5,000 Liberia National Police officers will receive fully-funded insurance coverage beginning in January 2025.
He emphasized that this initiative aims to provide additional support to officers working under challenging conditions to ensure the country’s collective security.
“The allocations we have made in the 2025 budget should be seen largely as a significant step in a multi-year journey to address the development ambitions and challenges of our country and people. In subsequent years, the government intends to do more so that every succeeding year will be better than the previous year,” he emphasized.
