The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the African Union Trading Company (AUTC), Mr. 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, Mr. Twum said he strongly welcomes the decision and called for proper mechanisms through which US aid can be provided.
He said billions of US Dollars spent on humanitarian programs worldwide has massively failed to meet the desired result or impact and expressed support to US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio’s statement, that the US Government will adopt a different mechanism through which the country will continue to provide aid globally despite the inactivity of USAID.
Twum said, “The decision by US President Donald Trump to suspend all USAID Programs is a great decision that will curtail wasteful spending and the high 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, he said since 2003, the US Government has spent US$2.4bn in Liberia through USAID for different social development programs and in humanitarian aid. 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.
Twum: “Just between 2024 to 2025, USAID has been using US$150M 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 allegedly diverted into the pockets of USAID administrators and their partners. Though USAID has 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 education system; poor health systems lacking quality healthcare and food insecurity based on support reaching the farmers.”
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, and expressed frustration that given the traditional relationship between Liberia and the US, Liberia is amongst countries with the highest visa denials in the world.
The CEO of the African Union Trading Company 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.
He said 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, have been wasted, mismanaged and corrupted, thereby failing to achieve the expected goals and impacts.
