BUSHROD ISLAND, Monrovia – Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan returned to his old school on Friday, November 28, with a message that blended policy promises with raw, lived experience, telling graduates of Boatswain Senior High School that poverty must never be an excuse—or a life sentence.
Speaking on the school’s football pitch on Jamaica Road, where he once sat as a student in the early 1980s, Ngafuan told the Class of 2025 and hundreds of current students that their background does not define their destination.
“We were poor. We were challenged,” he said, recalling his childhood in Logan Town and his years at Boatswain. “My father did not finish high school. My mother did not go to school. I know that poverty is not a prison. Remember this: poverty is not a prison. It is not a death sentence.”
From Logan Town to the National Budget
Ngafuan, who now manages a proposed US$1.211 billion national budget, used the occasion to trace his own journey through Liberia’s public‑school system.
He told students that he started at A.B. Tolbert Elementary in Logan Town, came to Boatswain Elementary and Junior High in 1982, and later went to Booker T. Washington Institute (BWI) and the University of Liberia, where he graduated in Accounting and Economics and was elected President of the University of Liberia Student Union.
“What this proves is that I obtained my education largely from public schools, public‑funded facilities,” he said. “I have not come to give a speech; I have come to give a talk to the young people graduating from this class and, to a larger extent, the young people of Liberia.”
Ngafuan reminded them that he once walked the same route many of them still walk.
“When I was entering Boatswain, it wasn’t all bread and butter,” he said. “We never had the means to pay for transport to come to school. From Logan Town, we would pass near Oldpa School, pass through Blamo Town, go through Small Boatswain, and then come here. That was our daily routine.”
Sometimes, he said, they were lucky enough for someone in a passing car to give them a ride. Other times, they simply walked home.
Watching TV Through a Doorway
In one of the speech’s most vivid moments, Ngafuan described how he and other children would crowd on a neighbor’s porch just to peek at a television set through a half‑open door.
“We would go on the porch of one of the ladies in the neighborhood to watch television. Sometimes we were five, six or more, struggling to see part of the TV,” he said. “Her son was not too generous. Each time he came, he would close the door. Then we would have to walk back home. That’s the time we knew we were very poor.”
Yet, he told the graduates, that realization never turned into bitterness.
“I never blamed my father. I never blamed my mother,” he said. “My late father hustled. He knew how to use his nickels and dimes.”
After seeing his son’s curiosity about current events, Ngafuan’s father started buying newspapers and eventually saved enough to buy a small black‑and‑white TV so his children could watch the news.
“I was schooled in formal schools like this,” Ngafuan said, “but we were also schooled in what I call the ‘school of life.’”
10 Scholarships for Graduates
To turn his encouragement into concrete support, the Minister announced 10 scholarships for members of the graduating class to pursue studies at the University of Liberia and other public tertiary institutions.
“I don’t want to only tell you that poverty is not a prison; I want to help you walk out of it,” he said. “So today, I am offering ten scholarships to deserving graduates from this class. Use them well. Let these scholarships be your first set of keys out of the jail of poverty.”
School administrators and students broke into applause as Ngafuan said the beneficiaries would be selected based on merit and need, in coordination with the school’s leadership.
“Next Year Will Be Better Than This Year”
Wearing his ministerial hat, Ngafuan announced a major boost for the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS), under which Boatswain operates.
“Next year, in the 2026 Draft Budget, we are increasing the budget of the Monrovia Consolidated School System(MCSS) by 60 percent,” he declared, drawing huge applause. “We have given an allocation for renovation and refurbishment of MCSS schools. We also have given some allocations to incorporate some volunteer teachers in the MCSS school system.”
He promised to work with MCSS leadership to ensure “value for money” in construction and “integrity in the project.”
“Next year will be better than this year,” he vowed. “And the year after will be better than next year. We will not reverse. We are on the path of progress and we will not take back steps. This country deserves development.”
Ngafuan said his confidence is rooted both in policy and faith.
“As a son whose blessings come from this soil, from these classrooms, I can assure you that God loves Liberia. From where I sit, and from what I see, and from the sweat that we are sweating, Liberia is moving forward,” he said.
ARREST Agenda: Schools and Skills
Linking his personal story to the government’s development agenda, Ngafuan highlighted upcoming investments in foundational learning and technical education.
He revealed that by early next week, the Ministry of Education, the World Bank and the Finance Ministry will launch the construction or rehabilitation of more than 100 schools across the country for grades up to 6th.
“My foundation here at Boatswain was solid,” he told the students. “When the foundation is solid, the superstructure will be solid. And the structure cannot collapse easily with the advancing wind.”
He added that the government is working with the European Union to ensure that each county has technical and vocational education programs to prepare young people for the job market.
“Don’t Let Your Circumstances Jail You”
Ngafuan urged the graduating class not to use poverty or a tough environment as an excuse to give up.
“I know some of you are going through what we went through,” he said. “But don’t let your circumstances jail you. Poverty is not a jail. Poverty is not a prison. It is a condition we can fight.”
He told them that the very streets and communities that seem limiting today can become the backdrop of a success story tomorrow—if they stay focused on discipline, learning and self‑belief.
“We grew up in challenged circumstances, but we did not allow those circumstances to define our future,” he said. “You can come from Logan Town or New Kru Town or West Point and sit one day where I sit today—if you refuse to surrender to your present condition.”
He reminded the graduates that many national leaders, including himself, emerged not from elite private schools but from public classrooms like Boatswain’s.
“If a boy who used to watch TV through a door crack can now manage a billion‑dollar budget, then you, too, can rise,” Ngafuan said, as students cheered.
A Call to Young Liberia
Closing his remarks, the Finance Minister broadened his message beyond Boatswain’s yard.
“I am not just speaking to the Boatswain graduates,” he said. “I am speaking to young Liberia. This country will go as far as your dreams, your discipline, and your determination take it.”
He urged them to use their education to lift not just themselves, but their families and communities.
“Yes, the government must build roads, schools, and clinics. That is why we are working under the ARREST Agenda,” Ngafuan said. “But you must build yourselves. You must build your character. You must build your minds. That is how we break the jail of poverty—together.”
As the graduates marched off the field with their diplomas in hand, many said the most powerful part of the day was not the biography read about the minister’s achievements, but his simple, repeated refrain:
“Poverty is not a prison. It is not a death sentence.”
