The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the African Union Trading Company (AUTC), Eric Oppong Twum, has strongly defended the decision of US President Donald Trump to suspend all programs of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) globally for 90 days.
Providing his perspectives on President Trump’s Executive Order suspending all activities of USAID, Twum said he strongly welcomes the decision, and called for proper mechanism through which US Aids can be provided. He explained that billions of US dollars spent on humanitarian programs worldwide has massively failed to meet the desired result or impact. He also expressed support for the statement of US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that the US Government will adopt a different mechanism through which the country will continue to provide aids globally despite the inactivity of USAID.
Further justifying President Trump’s USAID freeze decision, Eric Oppong Twum stated, “The decision by US President Donald Trump to suspend all USAID programs is a great decision that will curtail wasteful spending and the highly level of systemic corruption that have marked the operations of the US aid agency. Every year, the American people spend billions of US dollars to provide support to education, health, agriculture, democracy and other humanitarian purposes through USAID. Unfortunately, USAID administrators and partners, and top officials of government have colluded over the years in corrupting the funds at the detriment of the real purpose and intent of the funds. For example, since 2003, the US Government has spent US$2.4 billion in Liberia through USAID for different social development programs and in humanitarian aids, but the sad reality is Liberians are in abject poverty, jobless and suffering from high food insecurity. The health, education and agricultural sectors that receive the highest support still remain unimproved and less impactful.
Speaking further, Twum said, “Just between 2024 to 2025, USAID has been using US$150 million in the health, education, agriculture, governance and other humanitarian services, yet the impact cannot be seen or is highly negligible. We see signboards of USAID projects all over Liberia, but the unfortunate reality is sometimes those projects can be seen implemented, or poorly implemented, and the funds are diverted into the pockets of USAID administrators and their partners. Though USAID have spent millions of dollars to improve Liberia’s health, educational and agricultural sectors, we see the systemic lack of libraries, laboratories and poorly trained teachers throughout Liberia’s educational system; poor health systems lacking quality healthcare and food insecurity based on support reaching the farmers.”
In conclusion, Eric Twum, who is also a Sergeant in the US Army, expressed dismay over the lack of concrete and beneficial bilateral relationship between the US and Liberia. He expressed frustration that, given the traditional relationship between Liberia and the US, Liberia is amongst countries with the highest visa denials in the world.
Twum has vowed to lead a team of individuals to testify before the US Congress in defense of President Trump’s decision to halt the operations of USAID. The team will provide research driven data and evidential documentary to show how funds provided to USAID for humanitarian and developmental programs around the world, including Liberia, has been wasted, mismanaged and corrupted; thereby failing to achieve the expected goals and impacts.The AUTC Chief Executive Officer asserted that “after the justification before US Congress there should be a new mechanism through which the US can continue providing aids globally”.