Fact Check Summary:
- A Liberian based in Paris claimed on OK FM that President Boakai’s administration has borrowed US$2.6 billion since January.
- We have fact checked his statement and found it misleading.
- The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning’s mid-year report shows that Liberia’s national debt was increased by US$200 million, from US$2.4 billion in December 2023 to US$2.6 billion by June 30, 2024.
On Monday, September 23, Frank Gibson, a Liberian based in Paris, phoned the OK Morning Rush and claimed that the administration of President Joseph Boakai has borrowed US$2.6 billion since it came to power in January 2024.
Mr. Gibson’s assertion was in contribution to public debate about Liberia’s current debt portfolio and a reported off-budget spending by the Boakai administration.
The claim
Gibson’s exact words were: “This government of Joseph Boakai has credited 2.6 billion dollars in just six months. US$2.6 billion dollars! Where is the money going”?
Mr. Gibson made the claim at the 1:16:00 timestamp of this video.
Listen to the claim here:
Rating Justification
After listening to his assertion on the radio, we decided to verify the claim. We reviewed the Ministry of Finance mid-year fiscal assessment report for 2024, from January 1 – June 30.
This mid-year report is prepared in accordance with Section 23.3 of the Amendment and Restatement of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act of 2009. This Act requires the Minister of Finance to submit to the Legislature a mid-year fiscal review on the implementation of the Budget, including an analysis of revenue collection and expenditure performances of the first six months of the fiscal year.
On page 56 of the report, under Debt Management, the document reveals that at the end of December 2023, Liberia’s total public debt stood at US$2.4 billion.
This amount, according to the Ministry of Finance document, increased to US$2.6 billion as of June 30, 2024, a 7.4 percent increment from the US$2.4 billion reported at the end of December 2023.
The report states that the increase in the stock of debt during the first half of FY2024 was due to a US$207.4 million disbursement made to the government by borrowers.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Liberia’s Monthly Economic Review of January 2024 placed the country’s stock of public debt at US$2.3 billion, 51.3% of GDP at the end of that year.
In June 2024, the Bank’s Monthly Economic Review also revealed that at end of June 2024, the stock of public debt increased by 0.5 percent to US$2.6 billion, a 56.4% of GDP.
Conclusion
Based on this finding, we conclude that the claim made by Frank Gibson that the Boakai administration borrowed US$2.6 billion in six months is misleading.
The Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Liberia’s mid-year economic review of 2024 show that Liberia’s public debt had increased by approximately 200 million in six months (January – June) and not 2.6 billion as claimed by Mr. Gibson. The increase in the debt stats according to the institutions is based on payment received in the tune of US$207.4 million in the first six months of this year.
