GANTA, Nimba – President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has commended the citizens of Ganta for their ongoing development initiatives.

Speaking during the official dedication ceremony of the newly constructed road from Gbarnga to the Ganta-Guinea border, Sirleaf said that the development of Liberia is not solely the responsibility of the government, but that citizens also have a role to play.

“I want to thank the people of Gompa City,” she said, using an alternative name for Ganta. “Today, when I saw Ganta and saw the structures that have been made in Ganta, I know that they are ready,” she said.

Sirleaf lauded the quality of the structures being built along the main streets of Ganta and the efforts of the Nimba County Legislative Caucus, the Assistant Superintendent for Development and the mayor of Ganta.

“You have been the driving force behind this by saying you are not going to build any kind of structure on the main road of Ganta,” she said.

Sirleaf said that she is anxiously awaiting the day that she will be invited by the Superintendent of Montserrado County to the densely populated New Kru Town to attend a dedication ceremony like what she witnessed in Ganta.

Meanwhile, president Sirleaf has called on Public Works Minister William Gyude Moore to provide certificates for workers who provided services to the Chinese contractors during the road construction. The workers have been requesting the certificates as a means of boosting their employment chances in the future.

Sirleaf said she considered the workers’ request for certificates very necessary due to the years of experience they have had working along with the Chinese company, China Henan International Cooperation Group.

“As I traveled along the road, I stopped to greet the workers and to say how thankful we are for their contributions to this project,” Sirleaf said.

“Let me say to you, Minister of Public Works, some of them said to me they would like to be certificated,” she said. “I don’t know what it takes to be certificated, but I take it, what they convene is that they have learned a lot during the course of their working with the contractors.”

“They feel they now have some capabilities that need to be recognized by giving them some kind of document that they can take along,” she said.

Emerging from 14 years of civil war, Liberia is gradually moving on the path of sustainable development, with the Sirleaf Administration putting road construction on top of its developmental agenda.

Featured Photo courtesy of Emansion