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Graduates Cut Grass at GVL

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Top: The University of Liberia is graduating about 2,600 students this month. Lux Radio/ Isaiah Joseph Gbainhea


By James Harding Giahyue


MONROVIA – The University of Liberia is graduating some 2,600 students this year for the skilled labor market—perhaps, including Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL). However, they may have to settle for unskilled jobs like two alumni of the university and another school.

The two individuals have bachelor’s degrees but worked as casual laborers with GVL. Their tasks include cutting grass with handheld tools to plant palm trees in the Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom, Kpanyan District, Sinoe County.

“I felt it was useless for me to leave my home in Sinoe to go Monrovia and get a degree, come back and GVL gave me a cutlass to brush,” said Lawrence Doe, a 2018 general agriculture graduate of the University of Liberia, in a phone interview. Doe worked for GVL as a casual laborer for six weeks in 2020.

“For me, knowing myself, I said it was an abuse to education,” Doe added.

Another graduate worked for over a year as a casual laborer before GVL assigned him an office post.  The DayLight is not identifying the worker to protect him/her from reprisal.

The newspaper obtained copies of the fieldworker graduates’ diplomas and verified their stories with Nunu Broh, the chairman of the Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Committee. Odune Dumbar, a leader in Tartweh-Drapoh, a chiefdom in the Kpayan District and hometown of Doe and the unidentified worker.  

Broh, Dumbar and other community leaders had encouraged the two individuals to take the jobs as a stepping stone for top offers.

The unidentified worker stayed there for over a year and finally got a deserving job. For his part, Doe found a decent job and left the company.

Golden Veroleum Liberia hires university graduates as casual laborers at its palm plantation. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

No employment amid vacancies

Liberia signed a 65-year concession agreement with GVL, covering 220,000 hectares of ancestral land in southeastern and southcentral Liberia.

The 2010 agreement obligates the company to employ skilled Liberians from in and out of its concession areas.

GVL has long violated that provision, prompting criticism from then-Vice President Joseph Boakai in 2015. GVL welcomed the criticism but outlined its supposed employment history.

Amid its skilled employment obligations, evidence shows GVL has vacancies for such workers.

In 2020, GVL laid off nearly 450 workers due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fall in the price of crude palm oil on the world market.  Later that year, it redundant an additional 250 workers, the fourth layoff in seven years.

Earlier this year, an environmental audit report found that GVL had a vacancy for a health and safety staff at its palm oil mill in Sinoe’s Tarjuwon District.

The company has yet to hire graduates for a new clinic in Tartweh-Drapoh despite a protest there last year. Letters between GVL and Tartweh—obtained by The DayLight—suggest GVL has several vacancies for human resource officer, finance officer, transport manager, safety officer and assistant manager, etc.  

GVL denies employing graduates as unskilled laborers. “This is not to the knowledge of GVL,” said spokesman Alphonso Kofi in an email. “We will be glad if you provide some names…” The DayLight provided Lawrence Doe and has not heard back from Kofi. 


Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

No Top Posts for Landowners At GVL

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Top: A GVL fieldworker at work in 2023.The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue


By Esau J. Farr


TARTWEH-DRAPOH, Sinoe County – During a visit to Indonesia in 2015, then-Vice President Joseph Boakai urged Golden Veroleum Liberia to employ qualified Liberians in senior managerial positions. GVL welcomed Boakai’s comments while outlining its assumed employment history.

Nearly 10 years on, and Boakai at the helm of Liberia’s leadership, GVL is yet to fulfill that promise, including to Tartweh-Drapoh, one of its landowning, affected communities.

In 2014, Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom signed an MoU with GVL for 8,011 hectares of farmland in the Kpanyan District. The MoU was part of the GVL’s 65-year concession agreement with Liberia, covering 220,000 hectares in southeastern and southcentral Liberia. The agreement requires GVL to train and hire citizens of the landowning communities for top-level employment.

But GVL has failed to live up to the terms of the MoU. Tartweh-Drapoh citizens are only employed as fieldworkers, some of them university graduates.

This led to a protest in May last year. Residents stopped work at the plantation and prevented all GVL’s vehicles from plying routes in the chiefdom.

GVL then scheduled a meeting with citizens to hear their concerns. The parties signed a resolution in which GVL agreed to hire Tartweh-Drapoh citizens in senior positions in a month, among other things.

One document shows that the chiefdom submitted 10 names for as many senior managerial positions as possible. Some of the posts include human resource officer, finance officer, transport manager, safety officer, assistant manager and chief of security.

Two days later, Tartweh-Drapoh submitted five names for the human resource officer job upon the request of GVL.

Nunu Broh, chairman, Tartweh Agricultural Committee. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Gbarngo Quenah, a sustainability officer, requested individuals to apply and present qualification documents. In some cases, university graduates had to present high school papers, which—The DayLight has seen evidence—was done.

However, since then, none of the applicants have been hired, though GVL had said it would fast-track their employment. Earlier this month, GVL failed to open a clinic meant to be staffed by Tartweh-Drapoh residents per the resolution.  

“I feel bad nobody has been hired by GVL,” said Nunu Broh, Chairman of the Tratweh-Drapoh agricultural committee. “Anytime they (GVL) go to management meeting, there can be nobody to represent the community.”

‘Abuse to education’

The DayLight interviewed two Tartweh-Drapoh graduates who, evidence shows, GVL employed as fieldworkers.

Some GVL fieldworkers in Grand Kru in 2023. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

One of the graduate fieldworkers, who preferred anonymity due to fear of reprisal, said over a year his job was to clear thick, combative bushes to plant palm trees.

Lawrence Doe, the other graduate fieldworker, performed the same task for about six weeks in 2020. A 2018 general agriculture alumnus of the University of Liberia, Doe had been advised by the elders of Tartweh-Drapoh to accept the job to get a supervisor post. But that never happened, and he left and found another job.

“And for me, knowing myself, I said it was an abuse to education,” Doe said.

“I felt it was useless for me to leave my home in Sinoe to go Monrovia and get a degree, come back and GVL gave me a cutlass to brush,” Doe added. Broh and Odune Dumbar, a prominent Tartweh-Dropoh citizen, corroborated his and the other man’s story.

In an email response to The DayLight’s queries, GVL claims that the Tartweh-Drapoh MoU does not guarantee residents top posts.

But that response contradicts the MoU. The document gives the chiefdom first preference when senior positions are vacant. It says, “In the case, GVL has vacancies for… junior and senior managerial posts in the concession area, the qualified citizens of the communities shall be considered for said employment…”

GVL has a concession with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Gee and River Cesss. New Narratives/Harry Browne

Furthermore, there is evidence of such vacancies in Tartweh-Drapoh.     In 2020, GVL laid off nearly 450 staff, including  28 in the chiefdom, who have not been reinstated or replaced. And the communication exchanges related to last year’s resolution prove vacancies exist.

Also, in the email, GVL claims it has senior managers from Tartweh-Drapoh. “Some are currently serving in key decision-making positions, ranging from the human resource, agronomy, transport, community affairs, health, etc.,” the company said without presenting evidence.

Like in the case of the MoU, the evidence does not support GVL’s employment comments. Again, the resolution-related exchanges show that there are vacancies in all those areas.

Quenah, the sustainability officer with oversight of the chiefdom, confirmed that in a communication in May last year. “We acknowledge your communication… submitting to the sustainability five [Tartweh-Drapoh] sons for the position of [Human Resource] officer,” her letter read.

Tartweh residents said they would hold a meeting to discuss the chiefdom’s next course of action. Meanwhile, President Boakai did not mention jobs on his visit to Indonesia for the Indonesia-Africa Forum earlier this month, rather investment in Liberia.


Green Livelihoods Alliance provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

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