Published: February 25, 2026
MONROVIA — Liberia’s electricity sector is on the cusp of its most ambitious overhaul since the civil war, as Liberia Electricity Corporation Managing Director Mohammed Mulibah Sherif unveiled a €1.6 billion investment roadmap to transform the grid, expand nationwide access, and end what he called the culture of “beg, beg” at the state utility.
“We are no longer in crisis stabilization mode,” Sherif declared. “We want a strategic partnership, including an infrastructure partnership… The Liberia Electricity Corporation is investment-ready.”
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Speaking at a high-level engagement with government officials and international partners at the EU-Liberia Business Forum in Brussels, Sherif laid out a reform agenda built on digital transformation, governance reform, revenue recovery, and large-scale infrastructure expansion, including hydro projects that could anchor Liberia’s energy base load for decades.
First-Ever Modern Grid Monitoring
For the first time in Liberia’s history, LEC will deploy a modern Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to manage the national grid.
“So we have our SCADA, the SCADA system. The first time in Liberia we’ll have this modern SCADA system to help us with our national dispatch center,” Sherif said. “The SCADA help you to clearly see what is happening on your grid.”
The system will enable real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance and faster outage response — a shift from what Sherif described as reactive “firefighting.”
“We want an LEC where you take your telephone, download the app, report your outage, and describe your problem. We respond to you,” he said. “We want an LEC that does predictive maintenance, not reactive maintenance.”
The digital pivot will be reinforced by enterprise resource planning systems, customer information systems, and smart automation tools designed to reduce human bottlenecks.
“Through our diagnostics, we’ve realized that most of our problems [are] the processes, the bottlenecks within that,” he said. “Digital transformation will help in that.”
$50 Million Smart Meter Drive
Mr. Sherif disclosed that the government has allocated $50 million in the national budget for smart metering, marking the first such capital injection in postwar Liberia.
“The government put $50 million in the first post-war Liberia history in the budget,” he said. “Yeah, indeed, we have $50 million to spend on the smart metering.”
The initiative is intended to curb commercial losses and improve cost recovery.
“You can’t continue to beg, beg, beg. People got to earn for their bucks,” he said. “So under that, we got to cost recover.”
He revealed that LEC has intensified anti-power-theft operations, shifting inspections from daytime to nighttime raids to prevent illegal bypass reconnections.
“We’ve been able to arrest 251 people across the city,” he said. “We are seeing an influx of people coming for meters… to help us to reduce the losses, especially commercial losses.”
Rebuilding Public Trust
Beyond infrastructure, the LEC managing director acknowledged eroded customer confidence.
“LEC had eroded customer confidence,” he admitted. “When people call by phone, they respond weakly. When you register for a meter, it takes weeks, sometimes months, before you get one.”
The reform pillars include governance oversight, performance benchmarks and measurable delivery standards.
“The governance from the board, the board’s oversight on management, holding management accountable… We need to set performance standards for you guys so that we can measure your performance at the end of the day, you deliver results for the Liberian people,” he said.
Nationwide Electrification Push
Sherif rejected what he termed “pocket access” to electricity.
“We are saying that we don’t want to create… pocket access. We go by plan. We already have the plan. And the plan is aligned with the compact,” he said. “Electrification should be nationwide.”
He highlighted the installation of approximately 3,900 streetlights in rural counties, crediting the effort with improving security.
“When you go to River Cess, you will see River Cess is on… Then you go to Bomi, Nimba… some of the places we’ve connected, 40 years they’ve been without electricity,” he said.
Central and northwestern Liberia are also targeted through a proposed double-circuit 66kV transmission line from Botota through Lofa, with about 780,000 people projected to benefit.
“We’ve already gotten a commitment from the Saudis — $49 million — during their recent visit,” Sherif said.
Hydro as an Intergenerational Anchor
Central to the long-term plan is hydropower expansion, including the long-discussed Mankoffa (SP2) project and multiple St. John River sites.
“Mankoffa is important too. It is an intergenerational project,” Sherif said. “We should think beyond a particular regime.”
Preliminary studies suggest Mankoffa’s output could rise from an initial 190 megawatts projection to approximately 250 megawatts, with costs hovering between €600 million and €620 million.
“SB2 is one of the single most important reliability projects for Liberia in the next decades,” he said. “As a country, you need to guarantee your base load.”
He warned that reliance on regional imports leaves Liberia exposed to disruptions in Côte d’Ivoire or Guinea.
“So tomorrow, if Côte d’Ivoire has got problem, or Guinea has got problem, you can depend on something to cover your base load,” he said.
Further downstream, preliminary studies indicate St. John River sites could yield up to 360 megawatts combined capacity, with at least one segment potentially operational before 2030.
“These are sovereign-scale development assets,” Sherif said. “We need low-cost renewable base load for decades. It reduces long-term reliance on thermal generation and fuel imports.”
Industrial and Economic Linkages
The reform plan ties directly to industrial growth. Sherif noted that the proposed Monrovia Industrial Park carries potential demand of 85 megawatts — power that would require dedicated substations and transmission reinforcement.
“Installing a substation there will unlock that entire economic activity,” he said.
He linked electricity expansion to agriculture, mining and regional trade corridors, especially in Lofa County, which he described as “the food basket of Liberia.”
“When you connect central and northwestern Liberia through electricity, as an investor you are not just looking at Liberia. You are looking at Guinea… Côte d’Ivoire,” he said.
Aligning with Global Goals
Sherif framed the investment push within global development benchmarks, including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
“It supports SDG number three, which is health. It lights up hospitals… SDG 8, jobs… SDG 2, food security… SDG 9, infrastructure,” he said.
He also emphasized alignment with the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy and “Mission 300,” an initiative to accelerate electrification across Africa.
“We need to go to our 75%,” he said, referring to electrification targets. “It’s consistent with the global gateway the EU is targeting.”
A Call for Strategic Partners
With total funding requirements estimated at $1.6 billion, Sherif made a direct appeal to international financiers and private investors.
“We want to ready, ready, ready to add our voices… requesting not just the EU, but our partners in general, to come,” he said. “It becomes a win-win for all of us.”
He stressed that Liberia is prepared for public-private partnerships and structured financing blends.
“We have a PPP framework,” he said. “We are open. We have open minds. And we will make sure to facilitate whatever engagement that you may have.”
For a country where power outages remain routine and access remains uneven, Sherif’s message was clear: the era of incremental fixes is over.
“We don’t want to be firefighting,” he said. “We predict. Once we go smart grid, we sit in our offices, we know what is happening.”
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