President Joseph Boakai

     Abubakar Hashim/ Monrovia

In the midst of the fire inferno at the Capitol Building on Wednesday 18 December, President Joseph Boakai received a cheery phone call from Washington DC, that Liberia had been qualified to receive $500 million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation MCC, due to his administration’s outstanding performance in governance reform barely 1 year in power.

Liberia was dropped from the MCC scorecard in 2015, according to MCC notification, “due to poor policy somersault of the previous government”.

The $500 million MCC grant will boost the government’s ARREST agenda, particularly in agriculture, in focusing on local food productivity.

The ARREST Agenda, as published on .emansion.gov, “represents a comprehensive strategy to address food insecurity, inadequate access to essential services, governance issues, and economic stagnation.”

The ARREST Agenda prioritizes six critical development drivers:
• Agribusiness: Boosting food security and creating sustainable jobs.
• Roads and Infrastructure: Enhancing connectivity and economic access.
• Rule of Law and Governance: Strengthening institutional trust and combating corruption.
• Education and Human Capital Development: Empowering Liberians, especially the youth, with skills and knowledge.
• Sanitation: Ensuring access to clean water and improved public health.
• Tourism: Leveraging Liberia’s natural beauty and cultural heritage to diversify the economy.

But the Boakai government does not take full praise for the MCC grant alone. President Boakai remarked that the grant “is a result of the resilience of the Liberian people for good governance”.

The MCC is a US-based entity that provides grants to 400 million people in 47 countries, geared toward reducing poverty, promoting economic growth and strengthening development institutions

*Abubakar Hashim is the West Africa Bureau Chief of the Nigerian News Magazine based in Sierra Leone. He is currently writing from Liberi