Summary:
- Former Finance Minister Samuel Tweh Jr. recently claimed that under former President George Weah, the trend of poverty declined for more than three years.
- We have verified his assertion to be correct by reading the World Bank’s latest update on Liberia’s economy.
- However, the report shows that more people were left in poverty by the end of the Weah administration in 2023
Former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr., on September 30, claimed on OK FM that former President George Weah reduced poverty in Liberia during his tenure and that the country experienced a declining poverty trend for more than three years.
Mr. Tweah Jr. referenced the World Bank’s latest update on Liberia’s economy to support his points while highlighting key achievements of the Weah administration from 2018 to 2023. The claim can be heard at the 59:00 mark of the 1:26:43 long video.
The report (Liberia Economic Update) cited by the former Finance Minister, is a series of annual reports that assess recent economic developments in Liberia by the World Bank to assist the government and its development partners in identifying emerging issues and addressing persistent challenges.
The Claim
His exact words were: “The World Bank just came up with a report that says President Weah reduced poverty. Right now as we speak, the country has been on a declining poverty trend for more than three years.”
Watch the claim here:
Rating Justification
To verify Mr. Tweah’s claim, we checked the World Bank’s 5th Edition of the Liberia Economic Update titled “Powering Growth with Reliable Affordable and Sustainable Energy Access.”
The report shows that economic growth over the past three years (2021, 2022, and 2023) help reduced poverty in Liberia, although the poverty rate is still high.
In 2023, the population living below the national poverty line dropped to 59.7%, down from 63% in 2020. This means about 3.2 million Liberians were in poverty in 2020, and by 2023, the number decreased to 3.1 million – a reduction of fewer than 200,000 people.
However, it is important to point out that the government of George Weah left more people living in poverty by the time his administration was replaced in December 2023 than the amount of people in poverty in 2018 – when his government was inaugurated in January 2018.
When the CDC took office in 2018, around 2 million Liberians were living in extreme poverty but while leaving office at the end of December in 2023, about 3.1 million people were living in poverty, according to the World Bank report.
Conclusion
Based on a review of the World Bank’s latest report on Liberia’s economic activity, we conclude that the claim made by former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah Jr. that the country experienced a declining poverty trend in Liberia in three years is correct. According to the document, the percentage of the population living below the national poverty line dropped to 59.7% in 2023, down from 63% in 2020, though the rate remains high.
