This is exactly the case of many young Liberians who, despite the challenging economic environment in their country, are tapping into any profitable venture they can find in order to improve their livelihoods.
They fill major street corners in the nation’s capital, Monrovia, and its surrounding suburbs every day to play their roles as part and parcel of the engine of their country’s economy.
Most of these young people are involved in several categories of small and medium-sized enterprises. Some informal business ventures include wheelbarrow pushing, petty trading by ‘yanna boys’ (such as shoe selling), and motorcycle driving (also known as pem-pems). They are self-employed, and some even employ other colleagues, thus reducing the pressure on the central government.
The businesses these young people have built have, over the years, articulated their commitment to continuing to stimulate economic growth and development. Indeed, the informal sector of Liberia’s economy contributes a large percentage of the country’s gross domestic product, a contribution that is often underreported and overlooked. This rings true across the African continent.
On Thursday, our business reporter came across Ms. Jessica Y. Weah, a self-supported Liberian woman, selling sandwiches at the corner of McDonald and Benson Streets in Monrovia.
Ms. Weah, 26, is a junior student majoring in Sociology at the University of Liberia. She explained that the profit generated from her sandwich business pays her school fees at the UL and takes care of most of her personal needs.
“It is this business that is educating me,” she said.
Jessica started her business a year and half ago with paid-in capital of US$75.
“It has been difficult, but I have the courage to manage my own business,” she told the Daily Observer.
Like thousands of other young entrepreneurs, who include adolescent boys and girls in other lines of business at street corners and in market places, Jessica said it is her commitment to her business endeavor that has enabled her to triumph over extreme poverty.
Jessica makes her sandwiches from tomatoes, Irish potatoes, fried eggs, sausages, mayonnaise, and onions using Lebanese bread.
She sells each sandwich for L$60 and sells soft drinks as well. Her main customers are students.
With her business strategically located at the corner of Benson and McDonald streets opposite the Liberian Observer Corporation (LOC) offices, Jessica sells to students from both AME Zion Academy (a high school on Benson Street) and the nearby Monrovia College & Industrial High School on Clay Street.
She also attracts students from AME Zion University College and the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) on Benson Street and Camp Johnson Road, respectively.
LOC employees, passersby and residents of the Crown Hill Community also patronize Jessica’s sandwich business.
With some improvement in her business, this young lady has great ambition for the future.
“I’m hoping to buy land by next year in order to build my own house,” said. “Yes, I’m living with my parents, but I’m equally planning to own property for myself,” she asserted.
The contribution of informal sellers like Jessica to the economy is often overlooked and underreported. ‘Street sellers,’ as they are often called, however, are just as responsible for the growth of the economy as major established businesses – many of whom are not Liberian-owned and whose profits are sent out of the country. The money made and spent by young entrepreneurs like Jessica Weah and the ‘yanna boys’, by contrast, circulates right inside of the Liberian economy, and may even contribute to neighboring economies. These young business owners add to the number of Liberian-owned businesses and move the country’s economy back into the hands of Liberians.
Jessica used the occasion to encourage other young girls to get serious about their future.
“I want them to seek a better future by investing in business so that they can improve their lives,” Ms. Weah said.
