The Manager of the National Road Fund (NRF) of Liberia, Mrs. Joseta Neufville-Wento, has joined African Road Fund Chief Executive Officers at the Executive and Technical Meetings of the African Road Maintenance Fund Association (ARMFA), which coincided with the inauguration of Rashid Selleemani Kalimbaga as President-Elect of the Association in Tanzania.
Engineer Kalimbaga, of the Tanzania Road Authority, was elected during ARMFA’s 22nd General Assembly held in Monrovia from November 17–22, 2025. He succeeds Essai Moussa Aubin of Cameroon.
The Executive and Technical Meetings focused on comprehensive reports from the outgoing leadership and deliberations on the Association’s forward-looking strategy. Key areas discussed included capacity building for member institutions, addressing funding gaps, identifying opportunities to increase investment across the continent, and sustaining and expanding ARMFA’s membership.
Mrs. Neufville-Wento, who currently serves as Vice Chair of ARMFA’s West Africa Focus Group, actively contributed to the discussions. In her remarks, she encouraged ARMFA to leverage interns to support the Executive Office and proposed the development of regional programs or projects that could be jointly presented to development partners.
She emphasized that regional initiatives are often more attractive to partners than country-specific proposals. Citing her recent participation in the Mid-Term Review Meetings of the World Bank and the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program, Mrs. Neufville-Wento underscored the need for tangible investments to address climate-resilient infrastructure challenges.
According to her, development partners should increasingly shift from policy discussions to concrete investments. She specifically proposed the development and implementation of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Liberia as a practical intervention to improve mass mobility and ease congestion by efficiently moving large populations between densely populated corridors.
Through ARMFA, the NRF gains direct exposure to advanced governance frameworks, modern fund-management systems, and accountability standards practiced by peer institutions. These engagements enhance the NRF’s capacity to strengthen internal controls, improve revenue predictability, and ensure more meticulous oversight of road user charges and maintenance expenditures, outcomes that directly support national infrastructure priorities.
The NRF’s growing credibility is further reflected in the 2025 Annual Audit, in which the General Auditing Commission ranked the National Road Fund as the best-performing public institution. Building on this recognition, the NRF is currently undertaking a transition from a first-generation to a second-generation road fund through a proposed legislative amendment now before the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee. The reform aims to strengthen the Fund’s legal and operational framework, deepen transparency, and align Liberia’s road financing architecture with international best practices championed within ARMFA