Building a technology company in Liberia
The practical realities — power, connectivity, talent, banking — and what we have found actually works.
Wilbert L. Gbatu
Chief Technology Officer (CIO) · 30 July 2026
People ask whether it is harder to run a software company from Monrovia than from Lagos or Nairobi, let alone London. In some specific ways it plainly is, and being straightforward about which ways matters more than optimism.
Power is a solved problem with capital: inverters and solar make it a line item rather than a daily crisis. Connectivity is similar — redundant links across providers cost money but remove the variable. Neither is interesting once addressed.
Talent is the real constraint, and it is not a shortage of ability. It is a shortage of places where able people can do demanding work at a senior level without leaving. That is a self-reinforcing problem, and the only way out of it is for companies here to create those roles and pay properly for them. Which is a large part of why this company exists.
Banking and payments remain genuinely difficult, particularly for receiving international payments at a reasonable cost. We have workable arrangements rather than good ones.
