President George Weah has named Jolue Aloysius Tarlue, as the new Executive Governor-designate of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) after a vetting process.
Tarlue appointment is subject to confirmation hearing by the Senate.
Mr. Tarlue’s appointment comes over two-weeks after the resignation of former Governor Nathaniel R. Patray, III, who resigned on October 24, 2019.
The President named Mr. Tarlue on Friday, November 8, 2019 following a “comprehensive” vetting process by a team of experts, which the President had set up.
Mr. Tarlue is expected to lead a team of other governors in restructuring the CBL to tackle Liberia’s challenging economy.
The incoming CBL chief worked with a plethora of important banks, and other financial institutions in the United States of America, including J.P. Morgan Chase, BNY Mellon N.A., Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and HSBC Bank N.A., the Executive Mansion release said.
Mr. Tarlue holds an MPA (specializing in Public Policy) from Kean University, New Jersey (USA), and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science from the King University in Bristol, Tennessee (USA).
Prior to his preferment by President Weah, Jolue Aloysius Tarlue, Jr. was Chairman, Board of Commissioners of the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC).
LERC is responsible to regulate the electricity sector in Liberia by determining the legal and regulatory framework for generation, transmission, distribution, trading, import & export, and sale of electricity within the Republic of Liberia.
Central Bank of Liberia has been under scrutiny after it failed to account for over 15 billion Liberian dollars newly printed banknotes that went missing between 2017 and March 2018.
President Weah on October 24 accepted the resignation letter of Ex-governor Patray after more than three months since the pronouncement by president Weah that he goes for compulsory retirement to give way for reform process at the bank.
The CBL, formerly the “National Bank of Liberia,” was founded on October 18, 1999 by an Act of the Legislature and began operations in 2000.
Given the current state of the CBL, Patray’s successor will have to work tirelessly to resolve the systematic flaws in the institution’s banking procedures, and initiate a strong policy to tackle rising inflation, a heavily devalued local currency against the U.S. dollar this year and a slack in private investment.
Currently, the World Bank Group 2019 outlook report on the Liberian economy revealed that Liberia’s economy is projected to contract by 1.4 percent following the modest growth of 1.2 percent in 2018.
The report also stated that inflation reached 31.3 percent by August 2019, up from 26.1 percent the previous year.
Mr. Patray left following huge public outcry over his administration’s handling of the economy, particularly the US$25 million mop-up exercise, which was intended to stabilize the country’s economy, but did not go as planned.
Patray was appointed to head the CBL on July 4, 2018, a day after the resignation of former governor Milton a. Weeks. Patray is the second CBL governor whose five-year tenure was cut short in the Weah administration.
