In an attempt to make a case about the lack of resources to have universities all over Liberia, Gbarpolu County Senator-elect Amara Konneh has claimed that the average budget for community colleges in the country is US$50,000.
Mr. Konneh made the claim when he appeared as guest on the OK Conversation with Julius Jeh on December 6, 2023.
The Claim
His exact words were: “What can 50 thousand dollars do for higher education, which is the average budget for our [Liberia] community colleges?”
Rating Justification
To verify his claim, we firstly checked the various allocations made to community colleges across Liberia in the country’s National Budgets in the last three Fiscal Periods beginning with FY2023.
We then calculated the average of the allocations that were made to the community colleges in the three fiscal periods.
In Maths, an average of a list of data is the expression of the central value of a set of data. Mathematically, it is defined as the ratio of summation of all the data to the number of units present in the list. This can also be written as Average = Sum of Values/Number of Values
For the 2023 National Budget, the below allocations were made to the community colleges as shown in the chat below:
| Entity | Allotment in National Budget 2023 |
| Grand Bassa Community College | $1,003,530.00 |
| Bomi County Community College | $795,961.00 |
| Nimba Community College | $1,392,158.00 |
| Lofa Community College | $1,416,725.00 |
| Bong Technical College | $1,481,799.00 |
| Grand Gedeh Community College | $594,147.00 |
| Harbel College | $541,434.00 |
| Sinoe Community College | $577,904.00 |
| Grand Kru Community College | $576,000.00 |
| Rivergee Technical College | $300,000.00 |
| Pleebo Technical College | $200,000.00 |
When you do the Math to find the average of these various allocations above using A=SV/NV, you will get $807,241.63 as the average allotment in 2023 for the community colleges.
Also in the 2022 National Budget, the following allotments were made to the community colleges in the chat below:
| Entity | Allotment in National Budget 2022 |
| Grand Bassa Community College | $853,530.00 |
| Bomi County Community College | $711,841.00 |
| Nimba Community College | $1,177,064.00 |
| Lofa Community College | $866,443.00 |
| Bong Technical College | $1,747,685.00 |
| Grand Gedeh Community College | $460,052.00 |
| Harbel College | $541,434.00 |
| Sinoe Community College | $601,983.00 |
| Grand Kru Community College | $600,000.00 |
As done for the allotments in 2023, we also found the average allotment for fiscal year 2022 to be $840,003.55
Meanwhile, for FY2020-21 National Budget with the below allocations, we found the average allocation to be $643,264.44
| Entity | Allotment in National Budget 2020-21 |
| Grand Bassa Community College | $703,530.00 |
| Bomi County Community College | $561,841.00 |
| Nimba Community College | $1,027,064.00 |
| Lofa Community College | $849,840.00 |
| Bong Technical College | $743,236.00 |
| Grand Gedeh Community College | $460,452.00 |
| Harbel College | $541,434.00 |
| Sinoe Community College | $601,983.00 |
| Grand Kru Community College | $300,000.00 |
With these allocations to the different community colleges across Liberia in the last three fiscal years, the average allocations for the three years will be $763,503.00. This means, the average amounts captured from the budgets in the three tables above are far more than $50,000 United States Dollars for each of the colleges as claimed by the Gbarpolu County Senator.
Conclusion
With these facts presented, we therefore conclude that the claim made by Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh that $50,000.00 is the average budget for Liberia’s Community Colleges is incorrect.
The average budget for community colleges in Liberia is about $763,503, which is far more than $50,000 as claimed by Mr. Konneh.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content