By: Laymah Kollie
Monrovia — The Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) on Monday announced that it has crossed the US$1 billion mark in domestic revenue collection, a milestone officials say puts the government within reach of fully financing the record-breaking national budget it set for fiscal year 2026.
The announcement, made in Monrovia this morning, was met with a wave of celebration among revenue officials who described the achievement as a turning point for the country’s public finances.
According to a source close to the Authority, the billion-dollar threshold was crossed this morning largely on the strength of remittances from two government entities: the Civil Service Agency (CSA) and the Liberia Traffic Management Incorporated (LTMI).
The CSA remitted US$3,321,270 in withheld employee wage taxes, while LTMI contributed a collection of US$1,042,529, pushing the LRA’s cumulative intake for the year past the coveted ten-figure mark.
With those two remittances counted, the Revenue Authority says only about two million dollars now stands between current collections and the full National Budget target for the year — a gap officials expect to close within days given the pace of recent inflows.
“Taxpayers are immensely contributing to the budget,” the source said, crediting ordinary wage earners, civil servants, and motorists whose fees and taxes flow through agencies like the CSA and LTMI, alongside larger corporate and concession taxpayers, for pushing collections over the line.
The LRA has not yet issued a detailed breakdown of collections by sector, and the Authority is expected to hold a formal press briefing in the coming days to lay out the final numbers and their implications for budget execution.
Background: Liberia’s Historic 2026 “Billion-Dollar” Budget
Monday’s announcement lands against the backdrop of a fiscal year that Liberian officials have openly branded a milestone year for the country’s public finances.
President Joseph Boakai’s administration submitted a draft national budget of roughly US$1.211 billion to the Legislature on November 7, 2025 — the first draft budget in Liberia’s history to cross the billion-dollar threshold. Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan presented the plan on the president’s behalf, describing it as a shift from years of fiscal belt-tightening toward targeted investment in roads, electricity, and social services under the Boakai government’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development — an acronym covering Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation, and Tourism.
The proposed budget marked a 37.5 percent jump over the approved 2025 budget, driven both by stronger domestic revenue collection and a one-time US$200 million signature bonus from mining company ArcelorMittal, all of which was earmarked for development projects. Domestic revenue sources were projected to fund about 94 percent of the budget, with the remainder covered by development partners, including the World Bank, the European Union, and the African Development Bank.
At a press briefing unveiling the draft budget, LRA Commissioner General James Dorbor Jallah declared 2026 “Liberia’s Year of the Billion,” telling reporters the milestone was within reach even without the ArcelorMittal windfall, given the pace of the Authority’s own revenue growth.
The budget was not without controversy. Critics, including former Finance Minister and Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh, argued the spending plan was politically symbolic but structurally uneven, while editorial boards questioned whether a record-setting budget would translate into real improvements for ordinary Liberians. Analysts also flagged Liberia’s rising public debt — about US$2.70 billion, or roughly 56.6 percent of GDP, as of the end of September 2025 — as a risk to the budget’s long-term sustainability.
After weeks of review by the Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and the Public Accounts Committee, the House of Representatives approved the national budget in a late-night vote in December 2025, ultimately endorsing a figure of about US$1.249 billion (LRD 247.8 billion) by a vote of 42-2.
Against that backdrop, the LRA’s crossing of the US$1 billion collection mark represents more than a revenue statistic — it is being framed by officials as proof that domestic resource mobilization, rather than debt or donor support, can carry the bulk of Liberia’s ambitions for 2026.
