When I told Agnes about the cost of living in Monrovia being higher than in Paris, for someone new staying in western hotels, she said that she found Monrovia to be the poorest, and the most expensive, city in the world. I am learning why.
There are classes of people in Liberia. The higher class is the western UN or NGO representative. They fly in, stay in the 150/night hotels, eat the 50/day meals, and drive in the 150/day Landcruisers plus 30/day fuel. But they dont pay any of it. It is covered by the UN or an NGO and they are personally not out of pocket a cent. I may be the only person in Liberia apart from Luca paying their own way! And every day, a few flights arrive, with hundreds of new people checking in and out of the fully booked hotels every day. The UN has its own planes, and Air Kenya, Slok, Air Brussels, Aero and Bellview also have flights.
Now you might think this is a good thing. With all that money flooding into the country, it must trickle down. But no. The city is commercially run almost exclusively by Lebanese businessmen, which will come as no surprise to anyone who knows West Africa. Not an ethnic complaint, they have been here since the 50’s, worked hard, and have a well establshed network. Commercially they have tied up all the hotels, the building and construction material suppliers, the supermarkets, and the whitegood, generator and accessory stores. I.e, all the high value commodities and services. They charge at rates the NGO’s expect and have a budget for. It is no secret that the money leaves the country for accounts back home as fast as it comes in. So on a very simple balance sheet, UN money, as well as US and european NGO money, is transferred in huge volumes from western accounts to Lebanese accounts for all representative expenses on a daily basis.
On another level, much of the western aid coming in, comes with instructions on how to spend it. Again, the result is often a transfer between 2 western bank accounts while the aid is explained to puzzled Liberians. There may be a fund for a program, which gets spent on incoming advisors who pay Lebanese hotels etc etc. There are so many NGO’s and UN branches here: UNMIL, UNESCO,UNICEF, UNIFEM,UNHCR, FAO….
The average Liberian earns somewhere between USD 50 a month to maybe USD 150 (high). A dollar is serious money. Now what I noticed is that there is nothing in the middle. There are Westerners paying between 200-350 a day, and locals earning 50-150 a month, and nothing in the middle. There’s no middle class or middle income. You either stay in a new hotel, and run around in new Landcruisers, or you live in a concrete shack without power and take share taxis.
I did a quick calculation at my hotel. There are 64 rooms at a minimum of $150. Occupancy is always around 100%. They also have a restaurant and a bar that turns over between them say $per room. Thats USD 200 x 64 x 30 per month. $400K. Now they also have a casino. I wandered in late one night and it had about 50 people, several Chinese gamblers, and a few London female pit bosses watching the tables (I never play those things; I can calculate the rate at which you lose money.) I dont know what the casino takes, but you would have to think its a few thousand a night. So I think my hotel takes between 500-600K per month.
Now for the outgoings. The hotel has about 40 staff: security guards everywhere, a bar, a restaurant, kitchen, laundry, reception, casino. The average unskilled salary is 50/m. So 30 would be unskilled: 1500 per month. 10 would be skilled or western: sushi chefs, pit bosses. Say 2000/month each, or 20K together.
So the income is 500-600K. Salaries are 22K. Trivial. Other expenses such as food, alcohol, fuel for generators etc. And cars which make a profit on an hourly rate. It leaves a healthy monthly balance and the profit must be at least 500K. Liberia doesnt see a cent of it apart from the employees salaries. And there are a dozen or so hotels such as this.
Now say the profit for this one hotel is 5M per year. Coincidentally, that is the annual budget of the Liberian Senate. I know, because it was in the news that they had run out of money early and were unable to pay salaries.
There is an awful lot of money flying around in this USD cash economy. If only the Liberians saw some of it.
Me? I stayed 4 nights in the hotels, 3 at Mamba Point, 1 at the Royal. USD 600. I also spent USD 500 for a car for 3 days plus its fuel. Maybe 300 on food, drinks, phone cards. And while the guys were with me on the road trips I covered their food and lodgings, fortunately at low country rates, still maybe 80 all up. That is how you spend USD 1500 in just 10 days. If I didnt have Agnes’ Mamba Point apartment for 5 days, it would have been USD 750 more.
I’d like to come back soon, depending on how much I can put together. If I can only save a little, I may have to take second best and settle for an apartment on the Seine instead.