The West Point Town Hall was on Wednesday, September 16, 2026 overcome by joy as the first beneficiaries of 50 females fishmongers stood to their feet to dance to different musical beats as they received the first disbursement of US$450 intended to improve their business.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Each of the 50 marketers under the program was selected/qualified to receive a total sum of US$900 to improve her businesses after going through a series of vetting and verification processes.
And the joyful day arrived on Wednesday as they were told to gather in the Star of the Sea Town Hall in Monrovia’s densely populated township.
To them, the first payment means their dream and aspiration of expanding their business is being realized through the Recovery of Economic Activity for Liberian Informal Sector Employment (REALISE) Project – a Government of Liberia’s social protection project funded by the World Bank, French Development Agency (AFD), and Swedish International Development Association (SIDA).
The REALISE Project aims to increase access to income-earning opportunities for the vulnerable in the informal sector in response to crises, expand income and livelihood support to poor and food-insecure households, and improve efficiency in managing social protection programs.
It is implemented by Ministry of Youth and Sports (lead coordinator), Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) through a single Project Management Team (PMT).
The project has six components including: Grant Support to Vulnerable Households to Revive or Start Small Businesses; Temporary Employment Support; Community Livelihood and Agriculture Support (CLAS); and Social Cash Transfer.
On Monrovia on June 11, 2026, the REALISE Project officially launched the PROBLUE – an initiative aimed at improving livelihoods of fishmongers and strengthening economic opportunities within Liberia’s coastal communities.
PROBLUE is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank that supports sustainable and integrated development of marine and coastal resources in a healthy ocean, aligned to Goal 14 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Accordingly, speaking at occasion marking the first disbursement of grants to beneficiaries of the ProBlue Program, Mr. Julius K. Sele, Executive Director of the Liberia Agency Empowerment (LACE), pointed out that program is one of the means through which the government is trying to help its vulnerable citizens to in turn be able to help themselves.
“Today we are here to talk about empowerment, how to make our people able to help themselves and help their families. You know every time we pass around people say ‘government find job for the people, government find job for the people.’ But who is the government? The government is you. Why don’t you want to find your own job? And then the people you elected will use their power to help you,” said the LACE bossd.
“Today we came to join the government to address the issue of unemployment. I want to say congratulations to you, because for the last three or four months you have been listening to people, going through the training and everything they told you to do. So I know you are serious.”
Sele among other things called on beneficiaries to use the initial grant for its intended purpose so as to pave the way for the disbursement of the second segment.
With a joint call, they craved beneficiaries of the funds to use it wisely in order to encourage the donors to spread the program across other communities.
For their part, the women (beneficiaries) thanked the government and partners for addressing the needs, something one of the speakers described as realization of their dream. “We are very thankful to the Government of Liberia and the World Bank for this partnership. We want to thank all of the collaborating Ministries and Agencies for making our dream to be realized. We can assure them that we will use these monies wisely to grow our businesses so that others will benefit. Next time they see us, they will see a difference in our businesses. They will see total growth,” stated Princess Blamo.
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