Editorial: Fix the House Before Inviting the Guests

Washington’s 2026 Investment Climate Statement is a mirror Liberia cannot afford to look away from. The National Investment Commission must lead the response.

EVERY YEAR, LIBERIAN officials board planes to investment forums in Washington, London, Dubai and Beijing armed with glossy brochures about iron ore, gold, rubber, timber and a strategic Atlantic coastline. Every year, investors listen politely, take the brochure — and then read the fine print.

THIS MONTH, THE fine print arrived from the United States Department of State, and it is damning.

THE 2026 INVESTMENT Climate Statement on Liberia acknowledges what the government likes to say: growth reached 5.1 percent in 2025, exports surged, and inflation cooled. But it then spends page after page explaining why those numbers are not translating into the confidence that brings long-term capital. It names corruption as the primary brake on the economy. It says businesses can operate illegally if the right political interests are paid, while companies that follow the rules risk being shaken down for bribes. It says multinational firms are routinely charged fees that appear nowhere in their contracts.

THESE ARE NOT the words of an opposition politician or a disgruntled concessionaire. They are the considered assessment of the government of Liberia’s oldest friend, written for the boardrooms and risk analysts who decide where money goes. When such a report is published, it does not stay in Monrovia. It travels — to every investor weighing Liberia against Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone or Senegal.

THE BOAKAI ADMINISTRATION came to power on a promise to fight corruption and rescue the economy. This report is a test of that promise. And no institution is better placed — or more obligated — to lead the response than the National Investment Commission.

The NIC cannot sell what the country does not deliver

THE NIC IS Liberia’s front door to the world’s investors. It negotiates concessions, chairs the Inter-Ministerial Concessions Committee, and administers the 2010 Investment Act. But a front door is only as good as the house behind it. An investment promotion agency that markets opportunity while investors are being asked for unofficial payments at customs, the ministries and the courts is not promoting investment. It is setting a trap.

THE NIC MUST therefore stop seeing itself only as a salesman and start acting as the investor’s advocate inside government — the agency that names the problem, tracks it, and insists it be fixed.

What must be done

WE URGE THE NIC, working with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Justice and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, to act on the following without delay:

PUBLISH EVERYTHING. THE report notes that Liberia has no central online place where key regulations are published, no public list of upcoming regulatory changes, and no single “one-stop” portal for investment laws, rules and procedures. This is the cheapest reform available. Every concession agreement, every regulation, every official fee schedule and every incentive granted should be online, searchable and free. Sunlight costs almost nothing; secrecy costs the country investors.

KILL THE UNOFFICIAL fee. If firms are being charged fees not written into their agreements, the NIC should publish a binding schedule of every legitimate charge and open a confidential channel through which investors can report demands for anything else. Each complaint should be logged, referred to the LACC and followed up publicly. Officials who extort should be named and prosecuted, not quietly reassigned.

CLEAN UP CONCESSIONING. THE report cites a lack of transparency in tendering and contract awards, and political cronyism shaping decisions that should rest on merit. The IMCC’s deliberations, its evaluation criteria and its reasons for awards should be made public. A concession is a national asset held in trust for Liberians; it should never be negotiated like a private favor.

FIX THE LAND question. With less than a quarter of Liberia’s land formally registered, and concessions too often allocated without communities’ knowledge or consent, investors are buying lawsuits along with leases. The NIC should insist that no concession goes forward without verified title and documented community consent under the Land Rights Act — and the government must properly fund the Liberia Land Authority to finish the job of registration.

GIVE COMMERCIAL JUSTICE teeth. A commercial case that takes two to five years is not justice; it is a deterrent. The Commercial Court needs more judges, more funding and enforceable timelines. Reports of court officials soliciting bribes must be investigated by the Judiciary itself. Investors will keep writing foreign arbitration into their contracts until Liberian courts give them a reason not to.

PASS THE ANTI-CORRUPTION reforms already on the table. The LACC’s call for a specialized criminal court for corruption cases and the proposed amendment removing the statute of limitations on corruption prosecutions are exactly the reforms the report recognizes. The Legislature should pass them, and the Executive should fund them. Asset declarations mean little unless someone verifies them and acts on what they reveal.

OPEN THE BOOKS of state enterprises. Liberia’s 46 state-owned enterprises employ more than 10,000 people, yet the report says their revenues and debts are not always transparently reported and that some officials on their boards steer them improperly. Every SOE should publish audited accounts annually. Boards should be appointed on merit. The government should also say clearly whether, and how, it intends to restructure or open loss-making utilities to private capital.

CLOSE THE GAP with Washington. There is no tax treaty between Liberia and the United States, and bilateral trade remains strikingly small for two countries with such deep historic ties. The NIC and the Ministry of Finance should open talks on a double taxation agreement and make full use of preferential access under AGOA. Liberia should be pitching American investors a fair, predictable deal — not asking them to price in risk.

Standing in the world is earned at home

LIBERIA’S REPUTATION ABROAD will not be repaired by public relations campaigns or presidential trips. It will be repaired when an investor can register a company, secure land, clear goods and settle a dispute without paying anyone under the table. It will be repaired when a Liberian entrepreneur gets the same fair treatment as a well-connected one.

THE STATE DEPARTMENT has done Liberia an uncomfortable favor: it has told the truth in plain language. The government can respond with defensiveness, or it can respond with action. We urge the latter.

THE NEXT EDITION of this report will be written in a year. The National Investment Commission and the Boakai administration should resolve, starting today, that it will read very differently. Liberia’s resources have never been the problem. Its institutions have. That is the house that must be put in order before the guests will come — and stay.