Could Liberia’s logistics network destabilize West Africa?
(And yes, Trump is involved.)
Liberian logistics may not be something that you worry about on a day-to-day basis, but they could destabilize the entire West Africa region.
“There will be a huge, huge humanitarian crisis in Liberia,”says Johanchal G. Wrobeh, West Africa Ambassador at Logistics Learning Alliance, “within the next in two years - meaning after the elections and we choose wrongly.”
“Things are very, very bad and they are deteriorating by the day,” he says.
Regional instability?
Whoever wins today’s Presidential election will govern one of the poorest countries in the world, scarred from a brutal 14 year civil war and the recent Ebola outbreak, where 50% live below the poverty line and basic infrastructure needs are not met.
“We do not have pure drinking water running throughout the country, we do not have electricity running throughout the country. The country is currently running on generators,” Wrobeh says. “People go hungry on a daily basis in Liberia.”
If instability in Liberia continues and grows, it could have a domino effect; “it’s gonna impact the West African region,” he notes.
So how can this all be avoided?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Liberia’s problem is not the lack of food — “we have good weather, we have good soil,” he says — rather the lack of a logistics infrastructure.
“That is, we do not have a good road network,” Wrobeh says. “Because of that, the food sits in the interior part and does not get to the town. So, the little that reaches the city is being priced very highly and you have a lot of people going for it, so it is only the people that are ‘well-to-do’ that are able to purchase food stuff. It is a serious problem.”
With only only 10 percent of all Liberian roads paved, and many bridges in decayed condition, is it any wonder that a July 2016 country report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified transport infrastructure as “one of the main constraints on the Liberian economy”?
It seems simple.
Indeed, improving road networks does boost trade and commerce in rural areas — as farmers along the new 246-kilometer Suakoko Highway linking Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, with Gbarnga and the Guinea border have found out.
But that is just one road; far more investment is needed to develop a better road network across the country, and improve the livelihoods of millions of Liberians.
Yet, the World Economic Forum’s 2017 annual Global Competitiveness Report indicated that spending on public capital (government assets such as roads, sewers and airports) is the lowest in the region, despite donor-funded investment in public spending.
International donors make up half of the government’s annual USD 1 billion budget — the largest benefactor being the US government. But times are shifting; with President Trump’s proposed budget cut of 32% to all civilian foreign affairs spending, how long will this subsidy last?
Public vs private
“The fastest way to fix the country’s infrastructure is to attract investors whom we can engage in Public, Private Partnerships (PPPs). We believe that by attracting investors to invest in infrastructure, Liberia will develop rapidly,” Alexander B. Cummings, standard bearer of the Alternative National Congress, told the Daily Observer.
Though President Trump plans to cut government foreign aid funding, recognizes the potential for private investment in Africa, and has some friends that may be able to help.
“Africa has tremendous business potential. I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich,” President Trump said at the Working Lunch with African Leaders in late September. “It has a tremendous business potential and representing huge amounts of different markets. And for American firms it’s really become a place that they have to go, that they want to go.”
Perhaps this is an opportunity which Liberia’s next President needs to be prepared for.
“The political system in Africa is such that, whoever gets in power has to have strong ties with the West. If that doesn’t work out, there’s gonna be a huge humanitarian crisis in the next year or two,” observes Wrobeh.
So, Mr Trump’s friends, start with Liberia’s roads and you may even help to stabilize West Africa!
