From allAfrica

USAID Food and Enterprise Development (FED) program for Liberia, in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) launched the Liberia Agricultural Business Enabling Interagency Policy Group–a technical working group that is working to improve the business, enabling environment of the country’s agricultural sector–at this year’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Conference at Monrovia City Hall.

This week, the Government of Liberia issued Executive Order #64, suspending import tariffs on all types of agriculture equipment, seeds and live animals for breeding. The new measure proves that policy dialogue between diverse stakeholders and government can lead to promising change.

The high-level group — proposed by USAID FED — is comprised of technical representatives from government line agencies and commissions (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Investment Commission, and Governance Commission), the private sector, donors and other stakeholders involved in developing agriculture and agri-business in Liberia.

The Liberia Agricultural Business Enabling Interagency Policy Group will provide information and analysis to major decision makers in order to develop and strengthen meaningful policies, legislation, and donor programming that will improve the competitiveness of Liberia’s food crop sector. By doing so, Liberia seeks to ultimately reduce its reliance on imported food, particularly rice.

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