Monrovia - Minister of Transport, Samuel Wlue says there is no need for every vehicle plying the streets in Liberia not to have a license plate as it is being produced right in the country.
“The whole idea is that we are now producing license plates right here at the Ministry of Transport,” he said.
“Therefore it is important for every car plying the streets to have license plates."
"Therefore, we are encouraging every vehicle owner to come and purchase their license plates and get it within 24 hours.”
Speaking during an exercise to see firsthand the machines that make the plate, Minister Wlue disclosed that the Union Strong Group company is in a five year partnership with the government through the Ministry of Transport to print license plates.
And therefore any vehicle without license plates is running at its own risk and illegally.
When asked about nationalities of employees working with the company, Minister Wlue said they are all Liberians and the company is creating jobs for Liberians.
“The contract with Union Strong was signed for five years, but I am in partnership with Liberians for the rest of the tenure of Liberia, so as Liberia is, only Liberians who can provide services in any state of affairs, we will work with them,” he mentioned.
Responding to the Ministry getting its own plates processing machines in the future, he said it is underway.
“We have our own plate processing machine which is now at NTA Compound located on the Somalia Drive.
Because we are going through the process of decentralization, we will take our own machine to the various counties, starting with Bong County Service Center.
There we will set up a training room for people to be able to produce license plates as we are doing here at the Ministry,” he concluded.
During a tour of the facilities, dozens of plates were already processed.
It was also noticed that one of the green machines was responsible to design the plates, while the other was there to print the letters and figures on the plates.
“On an average, we produce about 400 sets of license plates daily, which is 800 license plates, because each vehicle uses two license plates, and we run an eight hours shift.
The workers are all Liberians who have been trained on the process to operate the machines and they have been working for the company for couple of years,” said Richard Neal, Operation Manager for Union Strong Group.
Deputy Transport Minister for Road and Rail Transport, Mrs. Juanita Bropleh, said it is usually said by the public that the ministry does not have license plates, but the ministry is proud to announce that they are processing plates at the Ministry.
“We have various categories of license plates, ranging from A1-A6, C1-C5, and we have the H and the T- license plates, and the prices of the license places, range from US$100.00 to US$1,000.00.
"When your plate is ready, the ministry can send you a text message asking you to pick up your plate. "
"We also have driver’s license, if you do not have driver’s license, please do not get behind the wheel without one,” said Minister Bropleh.
“We are trying to provide the best services for the public so that we can focus on other issues that are posing safety threats, like the makeshift and roadside garages.
They are operating on the streets that vehicles can hardly ply the streets.”
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