Project Overview: Private Sector Development in Liberia

The Private Sector Development in Liberia (PSD Liberia) Project seeks to unlock the potential of Liberia's private sector for inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The project is financed by the European Union and implemented under indirect management by Expertise France, as lead agency, in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO). The project will run for forty-eight months starting on 1 October 2025, with a total budget of EUR 25 million.

The overall objective of the Action is to contribute to increasing the competitiveness, inclusivity, and environmental sustainability of the cassava, fisheries, and wood processing value chains in order to foster decent job creation, economic growth, and competitiveness of Liberian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Its specific objective is to ensure that MSMEs, with a particular focus on those owned by women, youth, and persons with disabilities, increase their productivity and production quality so that they can provide decent and inclusive job opportunities while committing to environmental sustainability standards. To achieve this, the Action is structured around three main result areas:

•       Strengthening policy and institutional frameworks;

•       Boosting production and value chain development in the cassava, aquaculture, and wood sectors;

•       Enhancing human development through improved access to skills, decent work, and inclusive economic opportunities.

The project will be implemented in Liberia in Monrovia and in selected areas, including Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, and Nimba. The final geographic scope will be confirmed during the inception phase by the Steering Committee. Direct project beneficiaries will include chambers of commerce and business networks such as the Liberian Chamber of Commerce, the European Chamber of Commerce in Liberia, and the Liberia Business Association; government authorities and regulators such as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Liberia Standards Authority, the Ministry of Labour, the National Investment Commission, the Liberia TVET Commission, the Liberia Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (LACRA), the Central Bank of Liberia, and the National Commission on Disabilities; as well as MSMEs, microbusinesses, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, training institutions, civil society organisations, Disabled Persons Organisations, and relevant international and local partners. Indirect beneficiaries include the wider population of rural communities engaged in the cassava value chain.

The PSD Liberia Project is fully aligned with Liberia's ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID, 2024) and contributes to the EU Team Europe Initiatives on Safe and Sustainable Food Systems. It supports the EU Gender Action Plan III (2021–2025), Liberia's National Agricultural Development Plan (NADP 2024–2030), and international frameworks such as the EU Global Gateway Strategy, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Context of the Cassava Sector in Liberia

Cassava is the most widely cultivated and consumed food crop in Liberia, serving as the primary source of calories for a large share of the rural and peri-urban population. The crop is grown across all fifteen counties, with significant concentrations in Bong, Nimba, Lofa, Grand Bassa, and Margibi. Cassava production is predominantly carried out by smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women, relying on traditional low-input farming methods with limited access to improved varieties, quality inputs, and mechanization.

Liberia’s cassava sector is increasingly shaped by national strategies such as the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID, 2024) and the National Agricultural Development Plan (NADP 2024–2030), which prioritize commercialization, value addition, and private sector-led growth. These are complemented by the EU’s Team Europe Initiative on Safe and Sustainable Food Systems, including programmes like Seeds4Liberia, Soil4Liberia, LiFSY, and the Food Systems Governance Project, which support productivity and institutional coordination.

Despite its central role in food security, Liberia's cassava sector remains largely subsistence-oriented and poorly integrated into formal market systems. Productivity levels are estimated at 6–8 metric tons per hectare on average, well below the achievable potential of 2030 metric tons per hectare under improved agronomic practices. Post-harvest losses remain extremely high—estimated at 30–40% of production—due to the crop's perishability, inadequate storage infrastructure, and the near-absence of processing capacity at the farm and community level.

The processing segment of the cassava value chain is severely underdeveloped. While some traditional processing takes place - primarily the production of gari, cassava flour, and fufu -, operations are largely artisanal and fragmented, with limited mechanization, poor quality control, and negligible market linkages beyond local trade. There is virtually no industrial-scale cassava processing, and the sector lacks the drying, milling, and packaging infrastructure needed to connect smallholder producers to domestic or regional markets at competitive cost and quality.

Demand for processed cassava products is growing rapidly, driven by urbanization, dietary shifts, and the increasing use of cassava-derived inputs in animal feed, bakery products, starch manufacturing, and the brewing industry. Regional markets - particularly in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal - demonstrate strong demand for high-quality cassava flour, starch, and dried chips, and several West African countries have developed successful cassava processing industries that Liberia has yet to replicate.

The financial ecosystem supporting the cassava sector is extremely limited. Commercial banks perceive agriculture and agro-processing as high-risk, and the absence of collateral, formal business registration, and financial records among smallholder processors and traders restricts access to credit. Few Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) or Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have products specifically tailored to cassava value chain actors. There is no consolidated mapping of investment opportunities or bankable business cases that could attract private capital.

Gender dynamics are central to the sector. Women dominate cassava production, harvesting, and artisanal processing, yet remain marginalized from value-added activities, formal market channels, and financial services. Youth engagement is limited by the perception of agriculture as undesirable and low-return, and persons with disabilities are largely excluded from both productive activities and support programmes.

Systemic constraints also include weak quality standards, limited traceability, poor road infrastructure connecting production areas to processing and market centres, and an institutional landscape where multiple agencies - including LACRA, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Cassava Sector Coordination Committee (NCSCC), and local government structures - have overlapping mandates and limited coordination. Regulatory gaps and the near-absence of industry associations weaken the enabling environment for private investment and business formalization.

Recent major investments include the EU-funded CASTRAP (2021–2025), focused on processing, enterprise development, and cooperatives, and the World Bank-funded RETRAP (2021–2026, extended to 2029), which targets productivity, mechanization, and market infrastructure. While these initiatives have strengthened supply and processing capacities, gaps remain in commercial finance, off-take arrangements, and logistics. The PSD Liberia Project is therefore well positioned to build synergies and drive a more coordinated, investment-oriented transformation of the cassava sector.

Rationale for an Investment-Oriented Value Chain Analysis and Pilot Design for the Cassava Sector

The action will build on the existing body of secondary literature such as studies, diagnostics, and programme evaluations on Liberia's cassava sector, which have provided useful foundational insights into production constraints, smallholder livelihoods, and food security dimensions. However, these analyses have largely remained descriptive and supply-side in orientation, and have not sufficiently translated into actionable, private sector–driven interventions.

The CASTRAP and RETRAP Projects (EU & World Band-funded respectively) represent a substantial and complementary body of public investment in Liberia's cassava sector. CASTRAP focused on the southeast, building processing infrastructure, enterprise capacity, cooperative formation, quality systems, and community finance. RETRAP has focused on the north, central, and southeast, expanding the productive base through input supply, mechanization, land preparation, and market infrastructure. Where CASTRAP went deep on the processing and enterprise development side, RETRAP has addressed foundational agricultural productivity and market access infrastructure.

What neither project has yet resolved are the market-level failures that will determine whether these investments become commercially sustainable: structured off-take agreements with reliable buyers, commercial finance flowing to cassava enterprises, consistent product quality at industrial scale, and a functioning logistics market connecting production areas to processing and consumption centers. These are the gaps that the PSD Liberia Project is positioned to address.

Other cases of analytical gaps persist, particularly in understanding the following:

•       Real market demand dynamics -domestic, regional (MRU–ECOWAS), and export -for processed cassava products;

•       Firm-level decision-making, investment incentives, and commercial viability of cassava processing enterprises;

•       Unit economics and business case viability for different processing models (gari, HQCF, starch, animal feed, etc.);

•       Aggregation, logistics, and cold/dry chain constraints limiting competitiveness;

•       The financial ecosystem underpinning investment and the pathways for unlocking private capital.

This next phase of analysis will therefore adopt a more rigorous, market-driven, and investment-focused approach. It will incorporate deep demand segmentation across domestic, regional (ECOWAS), and export markets, alongside product-level demand analysis for higher-value segments such as High-Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF), cassava starch, dried chips, and animal feed ingredients. It will generate granular, firm-level insights into business behaviour, investment constraints, and profitability thresholds, complemented by detailed assessments of cost structures, margins, and break-even points across processing models.

In parallel, the study will examine the financial landscape - including available financial products, risk perceptions among lenders, and the behaviour of financial institutions - to identify realistic pathways for unlocking capital. It will address systemic inefficiencies in cassava flows, including aggregation bottlenecks, transport constraints, and market linkage gaps, and assess the feasibility of processing hubs and aggregation models that can improve competitiveness at scale.

Crucially, the analysis will move beyond traditional analytical outputs to deliver concrete, actionable results: the development of investment pipelines and the design of targeted pilot interventions implementable in the short term and scalable over time. Through this approach, the study will bridge the gap between analysis and execution, positioning the PSD Liberia Project to catalyse sustainable, private sector-led transformation of the cassava value chain.