By: Jefferson G. Krua
As an owner of two businesses that hire employees in Monrovia, one of the first questions I use to screen new entry-level employees is whether they live in the same neighborhood as the business location they applied for. For example, I avoid hiring frontline staff (think waiters, delivery drivers, etc.) who live in Redlight for roles in Sinkor.
My reasoning is fairly intuitive and based on experience—their transportation costs would simply take up too high a percentage of their salaries, making their lives unbearable, and eventually leading them to quit after I’ve invested resources in training and onboarding them. Someone traveling to Sinkor from Soul Clinic for work or school six days a week would spend at least US$90 a month—that’s over 60 percent of the official minimum wage. That’s before you consider the cost of food, their rent, or electricity. Keep in mind that there are many Liberians making significantly below the official minimum wage. It’s obvious that the cost of living in Monrovia is extremely high—and transportation costs are a huge part of it.
Apparently, the Liberian government has taken note of this high cost of living. Soon after the country’s Independence Day celebrations, President Joseph Boakai formed an adhoc committee to “recommend practical solutions to the country’s rising cost of living.” In early September, and at the committee’s suggestion, the government announced major price stabilization efforts for three commodities—rice, eggs, and flour. The price of a bag of rice would be kept at US$14, the wholesale price of a carton of eggs would be reduced from US$60 to US$50, and a bag of flour would hold steady at US$35 a bag.
Through these efforts, the government is targeting reducing the cost of food. However, while commendable, most Liberians will likely not feel the impact of these moves. For one, food costs have so many components that a reduction in three commodities alone will not be enough. The costs of farming vegetables and fruits need to be considered, in addition to the cost of protein found in meats that tend to mostly be imported.
If the Liberian government is serious about having quick gains to bring down the cost of living in Monrovia, it should start where price pressure begins: transportation. When the cost of moving people is high, everything gets more expensive. A stronger, smarter National Transit Authority (NTA) is the most direct way to ease that pressure.
As someone who studied public transportation and worked in the office of the general manager of one of the largest bus systems in the U.S., I’ve been disappointed at how Liberia has not found a way to create a public transportation system that can provide efficient and equitable transport in its capital. During every administration since former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, we have seen dozens of buses donated to the NTA or purchased by the government, only to see the gesture not translate into a reduction in the cost of urban transport.
For workers, market sellers, and all commuters in general, daily rides on taxis and motorbikes swallow a big share of income. However, when it’s cheaper and more reliable to reach central markets and job hubs, food gets cheaper, time losses fall, and household budgets stretch further. In Monrovia today, a typical commuter likely spends around US$40 per month moving across town—money that could be going to school fees or savings instead.
What the current system gets wrong
Public transport in Monrovia is too heavily reliant on informal taxis and motorbikes that are costlier per kilometer traveled, less safe, and harder to scale than transporting the population via buses. The NTA’s limited fleet doesn’t meet peak demand; riders complain about long queues and unpredictable waits, which pushes many to pay more for taxis. Even the 35 buses that just arrived and the 20 mini-buses that will soon follow, as announced by the NTA, will not make a significant impact in reducing the cost of transport if a systemic change doesn’t happen.
In its 2024 annual report, the NTA noted that it only served 5 routes around Monrovia and had only 12 functioning buses, which means it is quite rare to see NTA buses on the streets of Monrovia. Compare that with Abidjan’s public transit agency, SOTRA, which operated 139 routes in Abidjan in 2023 and had 1,560 buses. Note that Abidjan has 3.5 times the population of Monrovia and 130 times the number of buses. Going by the Abidjan ratio of buses per capita, the NTA should have 446 buses running in the Monrovia metropolitan area.
Note that even as NTA faces a bus shortage, almost every government ministry or agency has at least one dedicated minibus that is underutilized—only driven in the mornings and evenings to transport employees.
Moreover, despite its limited role in alleviating transport woes, the NTA has a bloated payroll, with 439 employees, of which only 34 are operators (drivers). At most transit agencies across the planet, drivers make up 50-60 percent of their workforce, which suggests that the NTA has six times more employees on its payroll than is currently needed.
Unlike the current system of shared taxis, kehkehs, and motorbikes dominating the public transport system in Monrovia, efficient and cost-effective public transport in a city of this size demands an NTA that can play a major role.
Here are a few simple steps on how Liberia can make transport the spearhead of a cost-of-living strategy:
Prioritize Monrovia before expanding nationwide.
The 12 functional buses at the NTA are not all used on the five routes in the city. Despite having such a small fleet size, the NTA is spreading itself thinly. The agency not only operates routes that go outside Montserrado, but it also rents out buses for private entities to charter. Of course, the logic driving such decisions is that those routes are more profitable for the NTA.
However, NTA’s mission, as stated in its five-year strategic plan, is not to make money, but to provide “systematic, efficient, and affordable transportation services.” Moreover, most transit agencies across the globe are actually not profitable—governments continue subsidizing their operations because of the numerous benefits that include reduced traffic congestion, a lower cost of living, and less air pollution. The few profitable transit agencies (mostly in Asia) derive the majority of their profits from owning the real estate their stations are located on.
NTA must cease offering its buses for charter and it should focus on high-demand Monrovia corridors. Monrovia holds the largest concentration of commuters and it is the most expensive Liberian city in terms of transportation and overall cost of living. Besides, running NTA buses on out-of-town routes that may not be completely paved will increase the wear and tear on the vehicles much faster than running Monrovia routes. Although it is important to prioritize decentralization, attempting to serve the entire country with the current limited fleet, even when all 60 new buses and mini-buses go into service, will not allow the NTA to provide “systematic, efficient, and affordable transportation services.” That move to real and effective decentralization can happen over time as more systemic changes are made to the NTA.
Reallocate waste to procuring new buses for the NTA.
The NTA is allocated approximately US$1.4 million each year in its budget for staff compensation – 64 percent of its entire budget. With few routes and few buses to operate, most of those employees likely have no meaningful work to do. The agency needs to downsize and reallocate at least US$1.1 million annually towards other key areas, including purchasing new buses and maintenance equipment, and upgrading facilities.
Additionally, the dozens of minibuses that sit parked most of the day in the yards of various government agencies should be transferred to the NTA, where they can move the most people at the lowest per-ride cost. The corresponding maintenance and operational budgets should also be transferred under the NTA’s control. This will ensure that government workers are not the only ones who benefit from effective transport options.
Run buses more frequently
With more resources under the NTA’s control, the agency needs to ensure that trips along its routes are frequent, with buses along the major routes in the city running every 10-15 minutes initially, before transitioning to every 5-10 minutes. Not only will those buses have to be more frequent, but they will also have to run later than most other forms of transport.
Think of the supermarket worker getting off her shift at 10 pm in Sinkor. She should be able to find a bus heading to Thinker’s Village with ease.
Offer low-cost fares
To truly impact the cost of transportation across the capital, NTA needs to set low fares that virtually anyone can afford. I propose this should be set at the equivalent of US$0.25 per ride (not far from 50LD per ride), US$3 for a weekly pass, and US$10 for a monthly pass that guarantees unlimited rides. Of course, in this modern age, there should be many options for cashless payment to reduce pilferage by employees. Such aggressive pricing strategies would reduce transportation costs for the average Monrovia resident by 60-80 percent.
If monthly transport spending falls by 60-80 percent for Monrovia residents, that’s an immediate boost to disposable income. This reduction in the cost of living would also impact businesses and may likely reduce the cost of other services. Many companies operate buses to transport their employees to and from work. Those vehicles come with certain operational costs that these companies pass on to their customers. If they no longer need to pick up their staff in these buses, that could have a ripple effect across the economy, where the price of some goods and services might be reduced. We will also see more people able to access more educational and job opportunities. Suddenly, attending a university on Capitol Hill while living deep inside Paynesville becomes affordable.
Another way that the economy could be improved will be the higher productivity caused by fewer hours commuters will spend in traffic. With higher capacity buses on the streets at a lower cost to commuters, smaller and less efficient taxis and kehkehs will likely be reduced along Monrovia’s major corridors. Taxi drivers will avoid running routes where they have fewer customers and offer traditional taxi services by handling last-mile transportation within the neighborhoods.
Liberia doesn’t need a moonshot to lower living costs; it needs a practical, Monrovia-first transit plan that the NTA can execute this year: more buses on the road, low fares, and bus frequencies the public can trust. Let’s make transport cheaper and more reliable, and Monrovia’s cost of living will follow.
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