Editorial: Enforcing the Liberianization Act

The Liberianization Act reserves at least 26 categories of business exclusively for Liberians. First enacted in 1976 and expanded in 1998, the law is intended to protect, promote, and grow Liberian-owned enterprises by ensuring citizens have space to build capital, create jobs, and compete fairly.

The framers identified 26 business activities meant to be Liberian-only, including transportation (taxi and trucking services); retail (the sale of rice, cement, timber, planks, ice, and pharmaceuticals); services (travel and advertising agencies, commercial printing, tire repair, and shoe repair); as well as the operation of gas stations and block-making businesses.

Yet, decades after its passage and amendments, the Act remains poorly enforced. Too often, the very officials and institutions responsible for upholding the law are among those who disregard it—and when they do engage Liberian businesses, the treatment can be dismissive and condescending.

Government actors frequently point to “low capacity” as a justification for awarding contracts or opportunities to foreign nationals who are legally barred from operating in these reserved sectors. In doing so, they violate the laws, and the Constitution, they swore to defend.

Earlier this month, Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh drew attention to the plight of Liberian-owned businesses—hardworking entrepreneurs operating without adequate legal protection, clear structure, or fair access to the opportunities the law promises them.

As Senator Konneh put it, Liberia is steadily losing control of sectors explicitly reserved for its citizens because the government has failed to enforce the Act and provide meaningful support to Liberian businesses.

Day after day, Liberians are marginalized in their own economy by institutions that should be protecting them. Ministries and agencies, for example, routinely award commercial printing and related contracts to foreign nationals—Lebanese, Indians, Ghanaians, and Nigerians—while Liberians in the same sectors look on. In many of those countries, such a practice would not be tolerated.

Concerns about enforcement resurfaced earlier this year after a deal involving Firestone Liberia and APM Terminals that reportedly permitted foreign-owned trucks to operate at the Freeport of Monrovia—an arrangement that displaced Liberian truckers.

That is why the moment to end these injustices is now. Liberia can learn from countries such as Ghana, where regulators have acted against foreign retail operations that violate local rules, creating space for citizens to participate meaningfully in their own economy.

The era in which foreign investors enter Liberia with as little as US\$15,000 and immediately move into retail and other reserved activities must come to an end. Financial institutions also have a role to play: when banks provide large loans that enable illegal participation in protected sectors, they deepen Liberians’ exclusion and accelerate the transfer of opportunity away from citizens.

We therefore urge civil society organizations, the media, and all well-meaning Liberians to press for full enforcement of the Liberianization Act. Foreign nationals operating in sectors reserved for Liberians must regularize their activities where the law permits—or exit those spaces where it does not.

Government ministries and agencies that collaborate in these violations should be investigated, held accountable, and—where evidence supports it—prosecuted under the law.

Liberians should not be spectators in an economy that is meant to serve them. Enforcing the Liberianization Act is not optional, it is a national duty. The time to reclaim protected opportunities, strengthen local enterprise, and restore fairness is now.