MONROVIA – Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has taken Liberia’s sales pitch to investors gathered on the margins of the UN General Assembly. His message mixed confidence with unusual candor about the country’s weaknesses. Growth figures, record revenue and falling debt formed the heart of his case. Yet he admitted that electricity, roads and slow government decisions still keep serious capital at a distance. That frankness may prove his strongest selling point in a room of skeptical financiers. Investors have heard grand promises from African capitals before. What they want is proof that profits can leave, contracts will hold and the lights will stay on. Liberia’s pitch will be judged by delivery, as THE ANALYST reports.
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Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, on Monday, September 21, urged international investors to consider opportunities in the country, citing projected economic growth, political stability and large infrastructure needs. He spoke at an investment roundtable held in New York on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
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Minister Ngafuan acknowledged that Liberia still faces significant development challenges. He argued, however, that those very gaps could create openings for private investment.
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“Liberia is stable, growing, reforming, and open for serious business,” Ngafuan told the investors. He disclosed that the government was seeking investment that could create jobs, expand agriculture and manufacturing, improve electricity access and develop roads, logistics and digital infrastructure.
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Growth, Revenue And Debt
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Citing the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ngafuan said Liberia’s economy grew by 5.1 percent in 2025 and is expected to expand by about 5.5 percent in 2026. Mining, manufacturing and construction were among the sectors driving that growth, he said.
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According to figures presented by the minister, inflation averaged about 4.5 percent in the first half of 2026, while the Liberian dollar remained broadly stable. Ngafuan also disclosed that domestic revenue had surpassed US$1 billion (L$182.4 billion) for the first time, describing the milestone as evidence of stronger domestic resource mobilization as donor support declines.
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Public debt, he said, had fallen to about 49.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), down from 57.2 percent in 2024. The minister nonetheless insisted that the government’s goal was not simply to raise economic output.
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“Our ambition goes beyond producing impressive GDP numbers. We want growth that creates jobs,” he told the gathering. He presented job creation as the government’s central measure of economic success.
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Electricity Remains The Bottleneck
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Ngafuan identified electricity as a major constraint on the economy. He said access to power had risen from about 31 percent at the end of 2024 to nearly 40 percent.
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The government aims to raise electricity access to at least 75 percent, while making power more reliable and affordable. Liberia is also seeking private investment in roads, logistics and digital infrastructure through public-private partnerships (PPPs).
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As an example, Minister Ngafuan cited a road project worth more than US$360 million (L$65.6 billion) covering several corridors. The project involves a company from neighboring Sierra Leone, he told the meeting.
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The government is also working to strengthen its public procurement and PPP frameworks, the minister maintained. He presented the reforms as part of efforts to give investors clearer and more predictable rules.
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Protections For Investor Earnings
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Minister Ngafuan also addressed a question that often worries foreign investors: whether they can move their earnings out of Liberia. He told the gathering that Liberia’s investment framework allows investors to repatriate capital and profits, subject to applicable laws and tax obligations.
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“We want investors to reinvest in Liberia because the opportunities are compelling, not because their money is trapped,” he explained. Ngafuan added that Liberia’s use of the United States dollar alongside the Liberian dollar as legal tender could offer familiarity to international investors, particularly those from the United States.
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Stability As A Selling Point
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The minister also pointed to Liberia’s post-war democratic transition and its peaceful changes of government as factors that could give investors greater predictability. Contrasting elections with changes of power by force, he declared: “For Liberia, it is the ballot.”
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Liberia holds significant deposits of iron ore, gold and diamonds. Ngafuan said, however, that the government is also seeking investment beyond the extractive sector.
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A Candid Admission
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In a notably frank moment, Minister Ngafuan acknowledged investor concerns over electricity, infrastructure, regulatory predictability and the speed of government decision-making. “We are working on all of those,” he said.
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He also conceded that Liberia’s investment environment remains a work in progress. “The Liberia of today is not perfect. I will be the first to confess that. But the Liberia of today is better than the Liberia of yesterday,” he asserted.
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Officials At The Roundtable
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The roundtable was organized by the Office of the Political Advisor to the President in collaboration with the National Investment Commission (NIC). Senior Liberian officials in attendance included Mines and Energy Minister R. Matenokay Tingban, Agriculture Minister J. Alexander Nuetah and Posts and Telecommunications Minister Sekou M. Kromah.
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Also present was Jeanine Milly Cooper, Chief Executive Officer of the Liberia Carbon Markets Authority and presidential envoy on climate action. The government says it is seeking greater private-sector participation to finance infrastructure, create jobs and support long-term economic growth.
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