SPS National Enquiry Point/National Notification Authority

SPS  NEP/NNA Contact Information

Contact information for NNA: 

Garmie Voupawoe, PhD MSc

Director of Animal Resources

Chief Veterinary Officer

WOAH Delegate

Ministry of Agriculture – Technical Department

EJS Ministerial Complex

+231 886 400 600

 Email: gvoupawoe@moa.gov.lr

 

 

Contact information for NEP: 

Contact name:  Augustus B.G. Fahnbullah   

Name of institution: Ministry of Agriculture

Email: SPSNEP@moa.gov.lr

 

Postal address / physical address:                     

 The Ministerial Complex
Tubman Boulevard
1000 Monrovia 10, Liberia
Republic of Liberia
+ 231 (0) 880-745-449
+ 231 (0) 778-334-255

 

 

The Department of Technical Services of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) is the technical arm of the Ministry. It is headed by a Deputy Minister who is assisted by an assistant minister. The Department has four large divisions: Animal Resources, Crop Resources, Land and Water Development, and Plant Quarantine Divisions.

 

Animal Resources Division

The Animal Resources Division is headed by a director who serves as the Chief Veterinary Officer. It has four units: the Animal Production Unit, Animal Quarantine Unit, Dr. Leon Quist Ledlum Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL), and the Veterinary Epidemiology Unit. The Division collaborates with other agencies and institutions through a One Health lens.

 

Animal Production Unit

This unit ensures the effectiveness and efficiency of government policies on livestock and poultry. It promotes the development of appropriate technologies for managing, breeding, nutrition, and housing livestock, providing energy, protein, and essential nutrients. The unit also addresses broader issues relevant to animal consumption including health, animal welfare, and the environment, raising sustainability concerns. In addition, the Animal Production Unit trains farmers on feed formulation, disease control, and selection of improved animal breeds to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability. The unit is headed by a director and assisted by Livestock officers (LOs) at the county level.

 

Animal Quarantine Unit

This unit is concerned with the inspection and isolation of live animals and animal products for exportation and importation. It also conducts quarantine of animals and animal products by passengers. Currently, one quarantine station (the Ganta border Animal Quarantine Center) is located at the Ganta-Liberia land border in Ganta, Nimba County.

 

 

Central Veterinary Laboratory Unit

This unit provides analytical and diagnostic services to livestock farmers in the agricultural sector. It ensures the production and/or import of quality and safe food products through adherence to international standards and good laboratory practices. The unit also ensures that biosafety and biosecurity measures are crucial in disease control and prevention. There is currently one veterinary laboratory in the country: The Dr. Leon Quist Ledlum Central Veterinary Laboratory, located at the University of Liberia Fendall Campus in Mount Barclay, Montserrado County. Animal samples are transported from the various counties in Liberia for analysis.

 

 

Veterinary Epidemiology Unit

This unit is concerned with the distribution and determinants of animal health, welfare, and production, surveillance, control, and disease reporting. The unit organizes the Division’s approach to problem-solving by confirming the existence and suspicion of an epidemic and verifying the diagnosis in collaboration with the Central Veterinary Laboratory. It also takes responsibility for the conduct of animal disease surveillance and response activities in Liberia, including mass vaccination campaigns for non-zoonotic and zoonotic diseases. The unit is headed by a director and assisted by Animal Surveillance Officers (ASO) assigned in the fifteen counties. Disease reporting includes to MoA, WOAH, FAO, AUIBAR, RAHC, and other partners.

 

The Division also engages in capacity-strengthening activities across its units and deploys its county, district, and community-based workforce network for extension services, information dissemination, and reporting. The Division’s work is multidisciplinary and requires both routine and emergency operations. It welcomes potential partnerships that contribute to a healthy animal health sector in Liberia and works in collaboration with local and international partners:

 

- WHO

- FAO

- AU-IBAR

- WTO

- WOAH

- ECOWAS

- CILS

 

 

Procedure and Requirement for Issuance of Import and Export permits (Companion and livestock)

 

The Division aims to issue permits quickly (48 hours) while observing relevant national and international standards and requirements”

 

Steps:

 

Step 1:

1: Do a letter of application to the Director of Animal Resources expressing import or export for companion or domestic animals.

Contact Person 1:  Garmie Voupawoe, PhD,  Director/ Animal Resources Division and Chief Veterinary Officer gvoupawoe@moa.gov.lr 

Step 2:

Visit the Ministry of Agriculture (Division of Animal Resources) to obtain a payment slip for payment deposit at the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), then return to the Ministry of Agriculture for processing of permit. 

Contact Person 2: Rufus D. Monbo, Administrative Technician rmonbo@moa.gov.lr

  1.  Permits are issued after you shall have satisfied the following conditions:

Domestic Animals (dogs, cats etc.)

  1. Type of vaccination (for example: Rabies)
    1.  Date of vaccination
    2.  Batch #
    3.  Date of expiration
  2.  Country of origin
  3.  Sticker (s) of past and present vaccination administered by veterinarian should be place on the health certificate for such pet (s) be it in Liberia or out of Liberia
  4. The health certificate (s) that is given should be signed and stamped by the veterinarian (s) 

 

   For large animals (Cows, Sheep, Goats, Birds, Ground hog etc.) 

  1. Business registration and Tax clearance 
  2. Producer Names
  3. Producer Contact #
  4. Country of origin
  5. Health records of any form

 

The Division reserves the right to refuse a permit if the above conditions are not satisfactorily met. 

Permit requests regarding wildlife should be directed to the Forestry Development Authority. 

 

 

 

SPS National Enquiry Point has been established at the Department of Technical Services under the Ministry of Agriculture as per transparency provision of WTO member with role and responsible for the collection of SPS related data & information and disseminate to the member countries and stakeholders. SPS related rules & regulation, standards, guidelines shall be intercommunicated within the forum of member countries via SPS National Enquiry Point.