Misleading! Boakai’s 2-year budget for agriculture is not bigger than Weah’s CDC in 5 years

Claim: Deputy presidential press secretary has said, President Joseph Boakai’s government “has put more money in the budget for agriculture in 2 years than the CDC did in 5 years combined.”

Verdict: Misleading. DUBAWA’s analysis of the budget data shows that CDC’s total budget sum for agriculture in five years was $27,174,605, while President Boakai’s budget was $25,570,281 in two years. 

Full Text 

In July this year, Senator Amara Konneh posted about Liberia’s economic performance on Facebook.

In response to Konneh’s post, Deputy Presidential Press Secretary Joseph Vallai argued that President Joseph Boakai’s government has made many gains, one of which he said is the improvement of agriculture under his administration.

Vallai claimed the Boakai-led government “has put more money in the budget for agriculture in two years than the CDC did in five years combined.”

Many commenters praised his post, with some lauding the deputy press secretary for standing up to Senator Konneh.

Given that agriculture is one of the pillars of President Boakai’s ARREST agenda, DUBAWA verified Vallai’s assertion.

Verification 

DUBAWA checked the national budgets from 2018 to 2025, which are published by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

In former President George Weah’s first budget year of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), fiscal 2018/2019, a total of $5,521,154 was budgeted for agriculture.

In the 2019/2020 budget, $5,521,154 was given to agriculture. 

By 2020/2021, $5,521,154 was again placed in the national budget for agriculture.

In 2022, $6,018,959 was given, while in 2023, $4,592,184 was given to agriculture.

This shows that during the five years of the CDC’s six-year tenure, from 2018 to 2023, a total of $27,174,605 was allocated to agriculture.

In 2024, which is the start of President Joseph Boakai’s tenure, $8,824,922 was budgeted for agriculture.

Now, in the 2025 budget, President Boakai budgeted $16,745,359 for agriculture.

This shows that in two years of Boakai’s six-year tenure, a total of $25,570,281 was budgeted for agriculture under the Boakai-led government.

Conclusion 

The deputy presidential press secretary’s claim that Boakai’s government has allocated more money to agriculture than the CDC did in five years combined is misleading. Although there was a significant increase in budget allocation for agriculture over the last two years under Boakai, it still falls short of the five-year allocation under President George Weah.