Editorial: Make the Billion Count

A Billion-Dollar Budget Means Nothing If It Never Reaches the Bottom

Liberia is collecting and spending more money than ever, yet the World Bank says more Liberians fell into extreme poverty last year. President Boakai’s record US$1.538 billion budget will not be judged in the Capitol. It will be judged in the markets, clinics and classrooms where most Liberians live – and, in time, at the ballot box.

LIBERIA HAS NEVER had more money to spend. In September, the Liberia Revenue Authority collected more than US$1 billion in a single year for the first time in the nation’s history. On Friday, the government asked the Legislature to approve a US$1.538 billion budget for 2027, the largest ever put before lawmakers.

THESE ARE NUMBERS worth celebrating. But they are also numbers that raise the stakes. A government that collects more and spends more has fewer excuses when life at the bottom does not improve.

AND LIFE AT the bottom is not improving. The World Bank reported last week that the share of Liberians living in extreme poverty rose from 34.6 percent in 2024 to 36.1 percent in 2025 – in the same year the economy grew by 5.1 percent. Mining boomed by 17 percent. Agriculture, which feeds most households, crept forward by just 2.6 percent. Nearly eight in ten Liberian workers still scrape by in informal trade, small-plot farming or unpaid family work.

THE CENTRAL BANK’S own figures tell the same story. Headline inflation fell to 4.6 percent in August, but domestic food prices rose by 11.1 percent. For the market woman in Red Light or the farmer in Lofa, slower inflation is cold comfort. Prices that went up are not coming down.

THIS IS THE paradox the Boakai administration must confront: an economy that looks healthier on paper while more of its people go hungry.

TO ITS CREDIT, the 2027 budget contains real promises. Health spending rises by 22 percent. Teachers are offered new minimum salaries. More than 17,000 workers are due for raises or new jobs. The government has, for the first time, admitted it owes nearly US$60 million to the national pension fund and pledged to pay it back.

BUT PROMISES ON paper have never fed a family. Liberians have heard grand budget speeches before. What they have rarely seen is money arriving where it was promised, when it was promised.

WE THEREFORE CALL on President Boakai, Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan and the Legislature to make this budget work for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Specifically.

PUT MONEY WHERE most Liberians work. Agriculture is the “A” in the President’s own ARREST Agenda, yet it has received less than 1 percent of recent budgets. That gap must close in this budget, not the next one.

PAY WHAT YOU promise, on time. Teachers, nurses, police officers and pensioners must receive every dollar this budget allocates to them, without months of arrears. A raise that arrives late is a pay cut.

PROTECT THE POOR from the coming VAT. The World Bank expects a value-added tax in early 2027. Rice, cooking oil, fuel and other basic goods must be shielded, or the new tax will land hardest on those least able to pay.

REBUILD, DON’T JUST run the government. Capital spending fell from about US$406 million in 2024 to US$297 million in 2025, according to the World Bank, even as revenue soared. Roads, markets, clinics and farm-to-market links are what turn growth into jobs.

BRING DOWN THE cost of living. As former finance minister Amara Konneh has argued, a stronger Liberian dollar means little if port charges, delays and unofficial fees keep prices high. The government should publish every port fee and monitor the prices of essential goods.

SHOW YOUR WORK. Publish quarterly reports showing what was spent, where, and what it delivered. Liberians deserve to follow their money.

THERE IS ALSO a political truth the Unity Party cannot ignore. This administration is at its midpoint. Its legacy will not be written in revenue milestones or budget totals. It will be written in whether a mother in Grand Gedeh can afford rice, whether a young man in New Kru Town finds a job, and whether a retired teacher receives her pension.

VOTERS WILL REMEMBER.

When Liberians return to the polls in 2029, they will not ask how big the budget was. They will ask whether their lives got better. President Boakai still has time to make sure the answer is yes. A billion-dollar budget gives him the means. What remains to be seen is the will.