The Whole Fact: What Is Liberia’s Poverty Rate? – Fact Checking Finance Minister’s Claim

Monrovia — On June 19, 2023, Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah Sr. and Maritime Commissioner, Hon. Lenn Eugene Nagbe were hosted on State Radio ELBC to speak about the success of the Government.

Speaking during the show, Minister Tweah claimed that “President Weah inherited 2 million Liberians living in extreme poverty when he took office” back in 2018. Minister Tweah in the interview quoted the World Bank’s Report on “Investing in Human Capital for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth” for Liberia which was released in June 2022.

The report, which is the third edition of the Liberia Economic Update (LEU), is a series of annual reports that assess recent economic developments in Liberia and assist the government and its development partners in identifying emerging issues and addressing persistent challenges.

This latest economic update presents a broad overview of Liberia’s macroeconomic context, assesses the macro-fiscal and growth outlook over the short and medium terms, and sheds light on the state of human capital in Liberia.

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Cover page of the report which was released in June 2022

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Reviewing page 20 of the report compiled by the World Bank to verify the claim made by Minister Tweah, we paid keen attention to the trend in Real GDP per capital and Poverty graph from 2014-2024.

We found out that in the year 2017, 46% (which is equivalent to 2 million) of Liberia’s population was living in extreme poverty when the estimated population of the country at the time was 4.5 million.

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The graph above shows the trend of poverty in Liberia since 2014 | Source: World Bank

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However, the graph (pictured above) shows that in 2018, the number of people living in extreme poverty in Liberia dropped to 44% when President Weah took office – amounting to 1.9 million people.

In 2019, this number rose to 47%, which means 2.1 million Liberians were living below the international poverty line set by the World Bank.

A further review of the graph shows that in 2020, 51% or 2.2 million Liberians were living in extreme poverty, 50% or 2.2 million in 2021; 49% or 2.2 in 2022.

Also, the graph predicts that 47% or 2.1 million Liberian will be living in extreme poverty in 2023 – far below the poverty line, according to the World Bank data.

The World Bank, however, blames the recent increase in poverty on health crises including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion

Based on the review of the statistics from 2017 to present, we conclude that Minister Samuel Tweah has his facts right when he said President George Weah inherited 2 million people in extreme poverty in Liberia in January 2018.

However, a review of the report shows that the trend of poverty in that year (2018) took a downward shift with 44% amounting to 1.9 million people that were in poverty. The number began to increase in 2019 – moving upward to 47% and 51% in 2020 before taking a descending trend with 50% in 2021, 49% in 2022. The report also estimates that the number of people living in poverty will be at 47% (2.1 million) in 2023.

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This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has to say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.