CSA and EcoBank Liberia Partner to Empower Civil Servants with Salary Advance

In an effort to make civil servants accessible to life-changing welfare-related benefits in the discharge of their socio-economic services to Liberia, the Civil Service Agency, through its Director-General, on Thursday, April 11, 2024, signed up and joined a launch of a new overdraft facility by EcoBank Liberia Limited, in partnership with Saar Insurance, dubbed ”Salary accounts and salary advances”, as it complements the Director-General’s unequivocal stance to reform the Civil Service Sector since his takeover in March 2024.

The “Salary Account & Salary Advance ” product allows civil servants with current bank accounts with EcoBank to access up to fifty (50) percent of their monthly earnings to meet contingency expenses, thereby giving them financial freedom with a low-income rate of three percent.

The Director General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA), Hon. Josiah F. Joekai Jr., thanked Ecobank Liberia Limited for the opportunity to create such a platform to accommodate the needs of civil servants. He said it would help to finance rent, employee satisfaction, and productivity.

At the same time, the Civil Service Boss has re-echoed the calls for bi-monthly payments, which, if approved, will also relieve civil servants of the hard financial burdens of borrowing money and paying it back at high interest rates upon receiving their paychecks.

In furtherance, Hon. Joekai added that in addition to payroll reform, he has proposed establishing robust systems for storing and updating employee information, facilitating recruitment and onboarding processes, implementing effective time and attendance tracking mechanisms to ensure each employee receives pay for time worked, and streamlining payroll processing and benefits administration procedures.

The Managing Director of Ecobank Liberia Limited, on his part, said the product is aimed at addressing the real and present needs of civil servants at the bank. Dr. Edward Nartey Botchway said the product is available for current Ecobank account holders and will provide prompt personal loans to salary accounts.

The Ecobank Liberia Limited Boss said that the bank is always committed to providing services that will see many livelihoods improve and would help to further strengthen the relationship between the bank and its customers.

The launch of the salary advances product was joyously graced by human resources personnel and comptrollers from all spending entities of the government, as well as other human resources organizations such as the Association of Human Resources Practitioners of Liberia and the Civil Servants Association of Liberia. They expressed delight in the initiatives as the product would alleviate the financial constraints on civil servants, as they are often forced to seek high-interest loans to meet their needs.