In Summary:
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ANC Political leader claimed that in the 2026 draft budget, only US$13 million was allocated to the agriculture sector despite being a major key priority on the AREST Agenda
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We fact-checked his claim and found it to be correct
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However, in the approved budget, the allocation to the agriculture sector was later increased to 14.9 million
On April 29, the political leader of the Alternative National Congress, Alexander Cummings, claimed on the OK Morning Rush that the Government of Liberia allocated US$13 million to the agriculture sector in the original 2026 national budget.
Mr. Cummings made the statement ( at 23:33 time stamp of the live interview) while arguing that, despite agriculture being a key priority of the Joseph Boakai administration, the sector remains underfunded.
The Claim
Cummings’ exact statement: “We will invest more in agriculture, the first ‘A’ in the ARREST agenda is Agriculture, when u look at the original budget, I think they were allocated 13million in Agriculture.”
Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we reviewed the 2026 draft national budget, which represents the government’s initial proposal. Our findings show that approximately US$13.6 million was allocated to the agriculture sector, supporting Cummings’ claim.
We also examined the approved 2026 national budget. Our review shows that the allocation to agriculture was later increased to about US$14.9 million.
Conclusion
Based on the review of the 2026 draft budget, we conclude that Cummings’ claim that US$13 million was allocated to agriculture in the original draft budget is mostly correct. US$13.6 million was allocated to the sector in the original 2026 budget.
However, the final approved budget reflects an increase to approximately US$14.9 million for the sector.
