THE INTRODUCTION OF a bill by Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh to protect Liberia’s informal economy and enforce the long-standing 25 percent public procurement allocation for Liberian-owned businesses deserves strong national applause. More importantly, it deserves swift and decisive passage by the Liberian Legislature.
FOR DECADES, LIBERIA has enacted good laws only to abandon them at the point of implementation. The Small Business Empowerment Act and the Liberianization Act clearly reserve economic space for Liberians and guarantee local businesses a quarter of public procurement opportunities. Yet, in practice, Liberian market women, petty traders, artisans, and micro-contractors continue to be sidelined, while foreign-dominated enterprises steadily encroach on sectors legally set aside for citizens.
SENATOR KONNEH’S PROPOSED Informal Economy Development and Protection Act confronts this reality head-on. By recognizing the informal economy as a legitimate and vital pillar of national development—one that accounts for nearly 68 percent of Liberia’s labor force—the bill speaks directly to the lived experience of ordinary Liberians.
THESE ARE THE citizens who keep the economy alive: market women selling pepper and bitterball, motorcyclists navigating pothole-ridden streets, tailors, mechanics, block makers, and small traders struggling daily to survive without protection or access to opportunity.
THE NUMBERS ALONE make the case compelling. With an estimated US$467.3 million in procurement-eligible spending in the FY2026 national budget, enforcing the 25 percent local procurement requirement would unlock about US$116.8 million for Liberian-owned small and medium enterprises.
THAT IS NOT CHARITY—it is justice. It is money already guaranteed by law but consistently denied in practice. Redirecting even a portion of these funds to Liberian businesses would stimulate local production, create jobs, expand household incomes, and reduce poverty far more effectively than many donor-driven interventions.
BEYOND PROCUREMENT, THE bill’s broader framework—registration and citizenship verification, designated trading zones, coordinated enforcement, access to microfinance, and protection from harassment—offers a long-overdue pathway to dignity and structure for informal workers. It acknowledges a simple truth: peace and stability are inseparable from economic inclusion. A population shut out of its own economy cannot be expected to remain patient indefinitely.
CRITICALLY, THIS IS not a radical idea. Senator Konneh rightly points to global best practices, including the United States’ small business set-aside policies, which delivered nearly US$179 billion to small firms in a single year. If advanced economies can deliberately empower their citizens through procurement policy, Liberia has no excuse for continued inaction.
THE LEGISLATURE NOW faces a defining choice. Lawmakers can either continue the cycle of passing laws that gather dust while Liberians lose economic ground, or they can seize this moment to translate legislation into livelihoods. Passing this bill would send a powerful signal that the state is finally ready to stand with its own people.
AS SENATOR KONNEH embarks on nationwide consultations, lawmakers should listen carefully—not just to policy experts, but to yana boys, market women, phenphen riders, and small traders whose daily struggles reflect the failures of the current system. Their voices must guide the final law, but its passage must not be delayed.
LIBERIA’S INFORMAL ECONOMY is not a problem to be managed; it is a strength to be protected and empowered. The Legislature should act boldly and pass this bill—turning policy into prosperity and restoring economic justice to the people who need it most.
