GOMPA, Nimba – Liberty Party’s Charles Walker Brumskine has continued his advocacy for the reopening of the now defunct Agriculture Cooperative Development Bank – this time in Nimba.

The presidential candidate had previously spoken about the need to reopen the bank during a campaign stop in Harbel, Margibi.

His recent call came in Ganta when he honored an invitation to address participants at this year’s Christian Literature Conference, held at the Trumpet Baptist Church. His rival, J. Mills Jones of the Movement for Economic Empowerment, also attended the conference.

Brumskine said for the 12 years that the Unity Party government has been in power, “President Sirleaf and her Vice President Joe Boakai [have] not seen the wisdom in opening that bank.”

“When Liberty Party comes to power,” he said. “The first thing we will do is to put money in that bank.”

Although the bank provided significant assistance to farmers and rural dwellers, controls at the former institution were severely lacking and the bank operated at significant losses before it was shuttered, documents from the Central Bank of Liberia revealed. Additionally, a strategy document by the Ministry of Agriculture said the bank did not adequately serve smallholder farmers.

Last year, the current executive governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, Milton Weeks, discussed plans to create a better version of the failed bank; however, there are no mentions of an agriculture bank in the CBL’s 2017 policy statement or in its 2017-2019 strategic plan.

The Liberty Party political leader said it is important to have the bank reactivated and serving as a “hub of relief” to the over 70 percent of Liberians who rely on agriculture to sustain themselves.

He said this will be a place where “farmers can go to get loans to buy their seeds, buy their fertilizers, buy their tools – and that bank will have branches all over the country,” echoing similar claims he had made in Harbel.

Liberia currently imports most of the agricultural products consumed, especially the staple food – rice. Brumskine believes that Liberians are capable of feeding themselves if the avenue is created in making agriculture a priority, especially rice production. He said the lack of producing or staple food is because the current government does not have the vision.

“If you make me president, in five years’ time, Liberia will be self-sufficient in rice production,” Brumskine claimed.

A few days after Brumskine’s statements, officials of Mills Jones’ Movement for Economic Empowerment touted their own recently completed study on rice production in the country and their party’s plan to ensure that Liberia can produce enough rice for local consumption.

“A study has been completed regarding how we can sufficiently provide food for our people to eat,” said Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, the national chairman for MOVEE, on ELBC Radio’s Bumper Show on Tuesday, May 30. “That study will soon come out to tell you that it’s very easy to produce our own food.”

Featured photo by Lloyd Massah