Broad Street, Monrovia, Liberia, March 31, 2026: University of Liberia lecturer in the Department of Economics and former Secretary General of the Federation of African Law Students, Ephraim T. Nyumah, has urged Liberian youth to optimize their potential to contribute to the sustainable growth and development of Liberia.
Delivering the keynote address over the weekend during the graduation ceremony of Smart Innovative Technologies, Mr. Nyumah said he is excited to see commitment and courage from young people who are willing not only to change their personal lives but to make a positive impact in society.
Mr. Nyumah told the graduates that education is not about building the institution -- rather, it is about what they get from the school and how they will use the skills.
"I'm urging all of you to optimize your potential for national contribution to the sustainable growth and development of Liberia. Our failure, success, demotion, our children's lives, and the future of this country are in our hands. As it stands now, you are developing your potential because you don't know whether it's alive or dead.
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The bird in the story I just told you is your career, and it's in your hands. You will determine if it soars or dies. I want to challenge you -- don't squeeze your career to death, but optimize and utilize your potential and career," Mr. Nyumah urged.
Providing a brief overview of his struggles and education, he said that in his very first year in college in 2015, he worked with an NGO, earning USD $50 as his first job.
But he committed to learning new skills yearly. In the span of one year, he went to school and learned Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and later completed project Proposal Writing -- skills he said increased his value to the point where the institution could no longer afford to pay him, and he had to leave.
"When I got my second NGO job, the first money I got was one thousand two hundred United States dollars, just from a three-week job. I did field assessments in just five counties in Liberia. My degree couldn't give me that job. I will get a law degree anytime from now, so I'm increasing my value," he stated.
He encouraged the graduates to see opportunities to acquire new skills not merely as a means of earning a certificate, but as an added advantage toward becoming their own managers and productive professionals.
"Vocational careers are the ones that pay today. We still have people with bachelor's and master's degrees who are pursuing technical vocational skills, because the degree alone does not really provide. Imagine someone with a degree working an entire month for about three or four hundred dollars, but with vocational skills, that amount is earned weekly," Mr. Nyumah concluded.
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For his part, the Executive Director of Smart Innovative Technologies, Isaiah Koffa, Jr., expressed appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Nyumah for his motivational words, while urging the graduates to network and serve with integrity.
"Like we have been saying during this training period, it's only integrity and networking that enable you to make progress in whatever you have learned here today. You are going to be trusted with the homes of clients, including their bedrooms -- you will see money, but if you don't have integrity, you will kill your dream, because you will steal if you don't have patience," he concluded.
