SSF Entrepreneur Incorporated was established fourteen years ago in accordance with a corporation pursuant to section 2 of the Liberia Corporation Act of 1976 amended 1977.with the sole purpose of helping to improving the road network of Africa’s oldest nation, the Republic of Liberia.
The Company established by Mr. Shawki Fawaz, a renowned businessman who has spent over 30 years of his entire adult life in Liberia since his arrival in the 70s as a teen is also a product of the University of Liberia.
According to information gathered, the objective of this renowned construction Company, the SSF Entrepreneur Incorporated is to undertake work relating to the construction, Asphalt pavement and maintenance of roads or any other construction works in accordance with sound and generally accepted construction principles.
Since its establishment, SSF has over the years has provided a well grinded professionalism through its specialized services in the Construction works includes, but not limited to, buildings, bridges, waterworks, dams, reservoirs, tunnels, canals, aqua ducts, irrigation works, harbors, and railway infrastructure.
Since its inception in 2004, She (SSF) has distinguished itself as one of the premier civil engineering companies in Liberia, marching inexorably forward in its quest to become Liberia’s Roads Contractor of Choice.
The company is engaged in the construction and maintenance of roads as well as the development of land infrastructure related to civil engineering. Potential areas of new business include public sector infrastructure, open cast mining, water supply projects, and sewerage and storm water removal projects.
Its operations are represented at locations throughout Liberia. SSF staff, proudly bearing the distinctive blue company logo, can be seen toiling away in every corner of the country. Sub-divisional offices in Maryland, Lofa, Nimba and Cape Mount County perform roads maintenance activities related to various aspects of gravel and bitumen maintenance on all roads.
This includes roads maintenance and the construction of gravel, bitumen and salt roads. Gravel and salt roads maintenance includes activities such as blading and regravelling. Bitumen maintenance includes pothole patching, crack sealing, surface patching, base repairs and edge-crack repairs. The company also undertakes resealing, rehabilitation and capacity improvement works on paved roads.
SSF logo becomes a sign of reliable, durable, and stranded road paved company in Liberia construction market within eight year time.
Asphalt work is a highly specialized area including several other activities that SSF performs in road infrastructural industry. It is no doubt that the company has exerted itself with massive accomplishments in the completion of challenging road contracts in the country.
This has been demonstrated by the implementation of several Asphalt projects in Montserrado County, western Liberia. The pavement jobs were mainly in Monrovia, the country’s capital and its environs.
The company also has road projects in both the southeast and northern Liberia. But in these areas, the works on the roads are literate jobs. They (the roads) had become unusable over the years due to the country’s long years of ravaging war.
Much progress has been done in carrying out the implementation of the projects with some being completed under retention. The pavement works in Liberia’s capital, chiefly in its environs have set an achieving benchmark for SSF evident by the fact their completion on time has boasted development initiatives to post-war reforms in Liberia. Some of the asphalt jobs that are currently ongoing include A.B. Tolbert, Duport and Zaizay Town community roads.
SSF continues to make headway with significant contribution to Liberia’s transformation. This is particularly in the context of road infrastructural development which is fewer than visible in the countryside.
In the countryside, southeast and northern Liberia, the company is engaged in laterite work on Barclayville-Kanweaken and kolahun-Vahun-Bomaru roads respectively. The later has been completed, but it is yet to be turned over to the government. In this interim, retention work is being done on it as provided in the contractual agreement.
Barclayville-Kanweaken road is currently ongoing with much significant work done being on it, despite the rains in that part of the country.
The company is expected to complete the rehabilitation of the road in a reasonable period of time. Barclayville had been cut off from Kanweanken and the entire southeastern region, not mentioning Liberia’s capital.
With the rehabilitation of the road, there will be a significant reduction in transport fares charged on travelers by motor drivers, plying on it. Laterite work forms part of SSF’s road infrastructural development scheme.
SSF has been able to tackle critical roads in rural Liberia. They were mostly dilapidated, left as the result of the country’s ravaging war.
The area of bridge construction is one of specializations of SSF. The company is involved in diverse infrastructural technologies. This is manifested by a volume of achievements it has made over the years in contribution to Liberia’s transformation.
It obvious to showcase that the George W. Bridge which connects Barclayville city was strengthened by SSF, that is its center pillar was built by the company to enable it (the Bridge) takes heavy weight such as trucks with giant tonnage.
The bridge had been built and left weak, risky that no heavy truck could ply on it. It had been only accessible by pedestrians and could not render its intended service.
With the construction of the center pillar by the company the bridge has become usable by all forms of automobiles. Prior to this, Barclayville had been cut off from the rest of the country. People from that southeastern city had always used canoe to cross the river over which the bridge is laid.
Barclayville citizens had lived in this condition for several years in fact it was so pathetic that it prompted the construction of the George W. Bush Bridge whose center pillar was built by SSF. This work added value to the company’s admirable record in infrastructural development in the countryside.
The construction of culvert is a phenomenal technology that SSF does. As a company it has proven performances across the country, by mean of the installation of several culverts.
At critical times the company adopts unique measures to carry out the construction of culverts while at the same time it builds them to expedite its works.
The measures show the same designs and ways of installation at all the company’s projects sites. The handling and methodology apply in culvert installation are universally paradigm, not limited to SSF’s scope of works.
There were challenging project at whose sites the company extremely did well when it installed culverts at those areas either under an addendum to a contract or as enshrined in a contract.
Several instances can be given for some impressive culvert installations that SSF has carried out across the country; they are noticeably including a box-culvert constructed on A.B. Tolbert road, a major outlet in Paynesville city outside Monrovia. A good number of culverts were also built on Pleebo-Harper road, another decisive project that took the company a reasonable period of time to implement.
Flooding had seasonally impeded both vehicular and human traffics on A.B Tolbert road which resulted from an open-way that water flowed through and at each event torrential rain would swell the volume of water to deluge the running-surface of the road.
Railway infrastructure
The construction of rail networks – both upgrading existing networks and building new networks – is usually executed in the form of projects. SSF has a comprehensive offering of Infranet Quality services which range from planning and building to cabling and connection services.
We have fine-tuned our methods to handle complex engineering, planning and general contracting projects. Our highly qualified technicians are equally familiar with traditional technologies and the very latest new technologies in all our areas of activity – electrification, signaling, telecom and asset management.
We use automated processes and state-of-the-art technology to manage large order flows, logistics and resources in the field. This means that downtime is minimized, management simplified, administration reduced, reporting improved and transparency increased.
Our way of working is always based on best practices. Whenever possible, we integrate our processes with our customers’ processes. By interconnecting the two support systems a single point of contact is created. Information originating with our customers automatically reaches our field technicians, which improves their efficiency and precision. And measures taken by our technicians are immediately implemented in our customers’ systems – to the benefit of their customers.
SSF Supports Towards President George Weah’s Vision
President George Manneh Weah in a bid to actualize the achievement of the Pro-Poor Agenda instructed the Ministry of Public Works to begin construction on the road in order to alleviate the suffering of community dwellers as a result of the bad road situation.
Since the founding of the community by former Liberian President Samuel Kanyon Doe in the 1980’s there has been no paved road to enhance easy access to the community and at the same boost economic activities.
Meanwhile, residents of Doe Community and Clara Town have expressed thanks and appreciation to President George Manneh Weah for making the two communities (Doe Community and Clara Town) to become the first beneficiary of a paved road under the pro-poor agenda.
Madam Juah Wleh of Doe Community told our reporter that they are grateful to President Weah because previous administrations promised to construct the community road by to no avail.
Brain behind SSF Professional Services
Mr. Shawki Fawaz, Managing Director/CEO of SSF Entrepreneur, Inc. gained his experience in the world of business particularly in Liberia, spanning for more than 30 years, crisscrossing forestry and construction sectors of the economy.
Though, a Lebanese by birth, Mr. Fawaz has spent his entire adult life in Liberia since his arrival in the 70s as a teen. A product of the University of Liberia, the SSF CEO rose to the position of operations manager and managing director respectively at two logging companies that had operated in Grand Gedeh, Lofa and Sinoe Counties.
These positions afforded him the opportunity to have direct oversight responsibility of the construction and maintenance of feeder roads within the concession areas and other major roads to ensure unhindered movement of trucks that were transporting timbers from the forest to the port of shipment.
The closure of logging operations in 1989 due to the outbreak of 14 years of devastating war which rendered the country to nothingness did not deter the desire of this astute business man, in remaining engaged with infrastructural development initiatives.
Hence, during the crisis, Mr. Fawaz focused on the maintenance of roads for relief organizations, especially for UNHCR to move supplies to internally displaced persons who were camped across Liberia, and as well as returning refugees. His recognition of the importance of road was not only for the livelihood of the displaced people, but the economic development of the country.
His ambition to seeing that the country’s infrastructures were being developed left him determinedly with the option of venturing into the establishment of SSF in 2004. It is a Liberian construction company legally registered with the government. With his dream being fulfilled by establishing the company, in his wisdom, the SSF CEO saw the need to bring on board as partners, Mr. Anwar Ezedine who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of SSF.
Shawki Fawaz’s good relationship with the government and Donors and implementing most challenging road contracts across the country on time, and working with his partner, Mr. Ezedine, the company is rapidly moving towards growth in gaining a tangible status in the country. Both partners have always made financial contributions and sacrifices to make the company what it is today.
The astute Managerial and entrepreneurial skills of SSF CEO, coupled with his interpersonal relationships with workers, chiefs, elders, community leaders and stakeholders in infrastructural development, have not only catapulted SSF to a leading Local construction company, they have also endeared it as part of the Liberian people.
It is no surprise, given Mr. Fawaz’s numerous social contributions, including the awarding of scholarships to schools, donation of clinical machines, and provision of food stuffs to communities in which his company operates, that he has made splendid achievements in strengthening the policies of his company in recruiting locals for labor-based jobs.
Apart from the recruitment of locals for labor-based jobs, his company has been in business of sub-contracting other local companies to carry out the implementation of projects that are commensurate to their capacities. This is something that is aimed at building their capacities. If one would have thought that the passing of time and pressure of work would limit the SSF CEO’s drive in achieving more, then one must have been mistaken. His vision for SSF, aims to see it being a regional construction company.
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