Description:
Liberia's power generating capacity
and national grid were completely demolished during 14 years
of civil war. Piped water access fell from 15 percent of the
population in 1986 to less than 3 percent in 2008. War also
left the national road network in a state of severe
disrepair. Since the return of peace, the port of Monrovia
has resumed normal operations under private management, and
progress has been made in securing donor finance for road
reconstruction. Liberia has also successfully liberalized
its mobile telephone markets, with low-priced access surging
to 40 percent in 2009. Liberia's starkest challenge
lies in funding a more cost-effective power sector. The
country's generation capacity is barely one-tenth of
the benchmark level of Africa's other low-income
countries. The cost of generating power is exorbitant, and
the power tariff is three times the regional average.
Addressing Liberia's public infrastructure needs will
require sustained expenditures of between $350 million and
$600 million annually, mostly to fund power and transport.
In the mid-2000s, with all sources of spending taken into
account, Liberia spent around $90 million a year on
infrastructure. An additional $17 million was lost to
inefficiencies, such as underpricing of power. Because
Liberia suffers an annual funding gap of between $250
million and $500 million per year, it will need a
combination of increased finance, improved efficiency, and
cost-reducing innovations to reach its infrastructure
targets in a reasonable time. Without these, Liberians may
have to wait for up to 40 years to achieve the targets.