I feel as if I have been screaming into the void, but the message bears repeating: the age of Artificial Intelligence is upon us. For Liberia, this is not a distant threat but a present and monumental opportunity. If we fail to act decisively—to build the foundational digital systems required to participate—we will be left behind.
By George K Fahnbulleh, [email protected], Contributing Writer
Nowhere is this opportunity more apparent than in healthcare. AI is a true force multiplier, capable of transforming health outcomes in a nation with an acute shortage of physicians and clinical specialists. We are no longer talking about abstract, expensive technology. With the open-source release of powerful tools like Google’s MedGemma, which can run on a single graphics card, state-of-the-art AI is now within our reach.
The benefits are not theoretical. In diagnostics, AI can analyze medical images and data with a speed and scale no human can match, reducing diagnostic errors by up to 30% and cutting reporting times in half. It can place expert-level knowledge in the hands of non-specialist clinicians in rural and remote areas, bridging the vast gap in healthcare access. For a system strained by limited resources, an AI assistant that boosts a radiologist’s productivity by 50% is not just an efficiency gain; it is a lifeline.
So why the inertia? Why is this self-evident revolution passing us by?
The answer lies in a cripplingly fragmented approach to technology. To suggest this is a failure of “my approach” is to miss the point entirely. The problem is not the messenger; it is the absence of a coherent, centralized strategy. Technology implementation is like constructing a building—it demands a solid foundation. In Liberia, we have none.
Instead, every government agency has made a conscious decision to hoard and conceal its data. I make this claim with 100% certainty. We see the stark consequences everywhere. A recent Executive Order instructing the National Identification Registry to simply meet its 2011 mandate laid bare such profound failures that it prompted the President to establish a 10-agency committee just to figure out what went wrong.
Consider this: in 2025, Liberia still has not standardized on an electronic medical record system. We have no centralized data storage or management strategy. We award a contract for National Identification Cards to one vendor, for driver’s licenses to another, and for biometric voter registration to a third. All of this is foundational, interconnected data, yet it is managed in isolated, incompatible silos.
This is not a failure of advocacy. It is a failure of governance. The fact that these foundational projects are not moving forward with anyone proves the problem is systemic.
We do not need a different approach; we need a different mindset from our leaders. We need an end to the haphazard, every-agency-for-itself mentality. The time for begging and piecemeal efforts is over. We need a decisive, top-down mandate to build the integrated digital infrastructure that will serve as the bedrock for our future.
The tools are here. The path is clear. The only question that remains is whether our policymakers will find the will to act.
