Lonestar MTN founder to speak for Liberia’s private sector on new regional body that advises West Africa’s presidents
MONROVIA — Benoni W. Urey, a founding shareholder of Lonestar Cell MTN, one of Liberia’s two main mobile phone networks, has been appointed Liberia’s representative on the ECOWAS Business Council, a new regional body chaired by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote that is designed to give West Africa’s private sector a direct line to the region’s presidents.
The appointment, announced in a press statement, places Mr. Urey among a small group of business leaders — one from each member state of the Economic Community of West African States — who will advise the bloc’s heads of state and government on trade, investment and industrial policy.
According to the statement, Mr. Urey was chosen after consultations across the region. Membership of the council is by invitation only.
“I am honoured to be invited by Alhaji Aliko Dangote to represent Liberia on the ECOWAS Business Council,” Mr. Urey said. “Liberia’s private sector has a great deal to contribute to West Africa’s growth. I intend to make sure our businesses, especially our entrepreneurs and young companies, have a clear voice in shaping regional trade and investment policy.”
What the council does
ECOWAS, the political and economic bloc of West African states, created the council as its main formal channel between the private sector and the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the bloc’s top decision-making body. The council’s mandate includes giving policy advice, promoting regional investment and industrialisation, increasing trade among member states and widening business participation in regional integration.
Mr. Dangote, Africa’s best-known industrialist and the founder of the Dangote Group, whose businesses span cement, sugar and oil refining, was named the council’s first chairman in December 2025 at the 95th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers in Abuja, Nigeria.
The council is expected to work with the ECOWAS Commission and member governments as it becomes fully operational in the coming months.
Business and public career
Through PLC Investments Ltd, Mr. Urey was a founding shareholder of Lonestar Communications Corporation, which launched in 2001 and operates in partnership with South Africa’s MTN Group.
Lonestar has become one of Liberia’s largest mobile operators and one of its biggest taxpayers, and is a major provider of mobile money services in the country.
He also runs commercial farms in Konola and Careysburg that supply the local market.
His public career includes service as Deputy Director General for Planning and Training at the state-owned Liberia Electricity Corporation and as Commissioner of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs, which runs Liberia’s international ship registry — one of the world’s largest. He led the maritime bureau from 1996 to 2003.
Mr. Urey later served as mayor of Careysburg, outside Monrovia, and founded the All Liberian Party, on whose ticket he ran for president in 2017.
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