MONROVIA, LIBERIA-The Board of the World Bank has approved a Second Additional Financing for the Rural Economic Transformation Project in Liberia.

The financing is funded by an International Development Association (IDA) credit of seventy-six million US Dollars from its Scale-Up Window and Nine million grants from the KfW Development Bank through the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund (LRTF).

According to a World Bank release issued recently, the money will scale up work on establishing basic road connectivity, which is vital to food production, livelihoods strengthening, social inclusion, resilience building, and the overall competitiveness of Liberia’s economy.

The World Bank Country Manager for Liberia, Georgia Wallen, said road infrastructure development is critical to unlocking economic growth, as such, the RETRAP AF-II project will assist in the transformation of the agricultural sector, providing farmers with access to markets and financially empowering them to participate in national development.

The Project targets an estimated 900,000 farmers and users of road transport services, mainly rural households and communities who will benefit from access to an all-weather road.

Improved road conditions along the additional 85 kilometers of road corridor will also directly benefit transport service providers through reduced vehicle operating costs and travel times and increased demand for their services and access to their new markets.

The release said those living along the southern section of this road corridor will be connected to the rest of Liberia.

Meanwhile, the RETRAP project is expected to complete the missing link spanning the Cote d’Ivoire Border-Toe Town-Zwedru (85km), on the Southeastern Road Corridor of Liberia, which is key to provide an economic lifeline for inaccessible rural areas with high and worsening poverty.

It will also support the economic integration of the region with the rest of Liberia and neighboring countries, and foster regional trade with Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea.

The original RETRAP project was approved by the World Bank on June 4, 2021, while the first additional financing from the Bank’s Crisis Response Window-Early Response Financing (CRW-ERF) came online on December 22, 2022, to help the Government of Liberia to respond to food, employment, and resilience crisis.

The current closing date of the RETRAP project is June 30, 2029.