By Wonderr K Freeman, Attorney, CFCS

This year (2025) was a good year for the Unity Party government of Liberia (GOL) and President Joseph Boakai. Long accustomed to financing Liberia’s development via foreign aid, this year brought much good news. Liberia is back in business with foreign donors. Every grant, loan or aid became a cause for celebration. Contrastingly, every shutdown of foreign aid missions becomes something of a National Day of Mourning—like the Swedish Aid Mission announcing closure. The growing contemporary general consensus on foreign aid has yet to hit decision makers in the Liberian government. The distilled wisdom of Dambisa Moyo, Moeletsi Mbeki, and Thandika Mkandawire, among others, rings hollow in Monrovia. The GOL policy remained unabashedly: abuse government resources (at home), steal as much as you can and go abroad and beg for aid. In more than twenty years, Liberian political elites have not changed this mindset.

In 2025, the Liberian government had some cause to celebrate. For example, the IMF Executive Board approved an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement with Liberia, providing immediate access to SDR 19.3 million (about U.S.$ 26.5 million)[1]. Similarly, the U.S. Embassy announced that Liberia has been reaffirmed for a second U.S. Government–funded Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact, which approval the Embassy Facebook page credits to Liberia’s commitment to “transparency, accountable governance, and economic growth”[2]. In practical terms, this means millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Liberia. Even more recently, the U.S. State Department and Liberia signed a $124 million MOU aimed at strengthening Liberia’s health system, disease surveillance, outbreak response capacity, and frontline health workforce.

The GOL apologists and social media vigilantes were in high spirits at this string of great news, splashing their “gospel” all across the blogosphere. Some sang praises to the finance minister and sometimes, as expected, others hailed President Boakai for his “visionary” leadership. And I agree this is great news, as anything that contributes to Liberia’s socio-economic progress is great news. But after the celebrations, how much does life change—for the better, for the average Liberian? Not much. And if we choose to be honest with ourselves, life for so many in Liberia has deteriorated terribly.

Despite the foreign aid avalanche (2006-present), Liberians remain very poor

A handful of foreign aid contracts is not an avalanche. But let’s suppose it is, then what? In the absence of sound fiscal management, accountability, and improved governance, indigenous enterprise development, no amount of foreign is going to move the needle on Liberia’s dire economic situation. And that, my friends, is my problem with the recent celebrations. We have a continuing, flagrant public finance abuse system—insane salaries for public officials, where the top office makes anywhere between US$130k to 240k per annum, in annual salaries and benefits. Now, contrast that with the average civil servant, who makes US$1800-3600 per annum. This is a whopping 42 to 66 times what the average civil servant makes. Even many of the U.S. or foreign officials who sign these documents granting aid to Liberia, do not make the salaries our officials make. This is the sad reality that the GOL chose not to rectify, instead they would rather create a celebratory atmosphere, giving the average citizen the impression that their redemption lies not is prudent fiscal management in Liberia, but in an unending supply of foreign aid (aka free money as one GOL social media vigilante puts it). Liberians abuse and misuse the country’s resources, and they steal whatever is neither abused nor misused – with reckless impunity. The people have been conditioned to wait for IMF, The World Bank, EU-AID, China-Aid, and USAID, etc. – for a better life. In the meantime, the UP/GOL, over the course of 2024-2026, has managed to spend approximately USD200 million on agencies under the direct supervision of President Boakai[3] and another U.S.$ 150m on the National Legislature. And for agriculture, the sector where the majority of Liberians work, only U.S. 37m. This tells you all you need to know about the mentality of Liberia’s political elites. This mentality has not changed one bit in over twenty years.

What USD13 billion in post-war aid couldn’t do

In the greater scheme of things, Liberia will not escape poverty relying on foreign aid. We have seen this proven time and again. But of course, this too is Liberia, where we do the same thing over and over again and pray to God for deliverance. Liberia is currently at the bottom of nearly every human security or socio-economic development ranking. And that is despite receiving massive amounts of foreign aid. What happened to the billions of dollars in grants and aid since 2006? Why is Liberia still among the poorest of the poor nations on earth? Why U.S.$10 billion in foreign aid didn’t do it—under the first and second UP GOL (2006-2017), led by the globally acclaimed ex-President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. In a culture of corruption and impunity, even emptying the vault of The World Bank and giving the [entire] cash to Liberia will not help. There are always some Liberian officials standing by to steal one-half of that aid and abuse the other half. Aid is of no use in a culture of corruption and impunity.

 So, instead of celebrating minuscule amounts of foreign aid, we should be asking ourselves as Liberians, if USD13 billion in ODA could do it, can the MCC compact do it? Can the IMF extended credit facility of U.S.$ 26 million, do it? Liberia risks perpetual poverty if its leaders do not rethink their dependence on foreign aid. To Liberian leaders: first and foremost, you must:

1. fix the rampant corruption issue
2. institutionalize transparency and accountability
3. prioritize agriculture and youth development
4. promote Liberian entrepreneurs and other domestic industries
5. normalize adherence to the rule of law

It is only after doing these that foreign aid can make any significant impact on Liberia.

[1] https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2025/10/02/pr25325-liberia-imf-board-concludes-2025-aiv-consultation-and-completes-2nd-review-under-the-ecf

[2] https://www.facebook.com/monrovia.usembassy/posts/the-us-embassy-is-pleased-to-confirm-that-liberia-has-been-reaffirmed-for-a-seco/1275502994605206/

[3] Ministry of State, Executive Protection Service, Vice President Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security Agency

Wonderr K. Freeman is a Liberian Investment Attorney, Political Economist, Accountant, and Certified Financial Crimes Specialist (CFCS) currently based in Minneapolis, USA. Mr. Freeman’s professional interests span the intersection of law and economics, including the political economy of development, economic justice, international trade/investment law, and financial crimes law. He can be reached at [email protected]. He blogs at https://wonderrfreeman.com