Stephen Yekeson Jr. Named Acting Commerce Minister, Replacing Dagoseh

Stephen M. Yekeson Jr. was sworn in Wednesday as Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, filling the vacancy left when Magdalene E. Dagoseh was reassigned from the post earlier this week, a move that had drawn public pushback from a coalition of Liberian women's rights groups demanding clarity on where she and Defense Minister Geraldine George would land next.

Yekeson brings a background spanning finance, public administration, infrastructure, investment and corporate strategy, with experience in government, corporate America and regional investment ventures, including involvement in major public-private partnership negotiations. He now oversees trade, investment, industrial development, consumer protection and the broader policy environment for Liberia's business sector, and serves in an acting capacity pending Senate confirmation of his nomination.

The appointment lands during a difficult economic stretch for Liberian businesses, with price pressures, high operating costs and limited access to financing all weighing on the private sector even as the government touts the country's recent crossing of the $1 billion domestic revenue mark. Yekeson is expected to focus on improving the business climate and expanding opportunities for Liberian-owned enterprises specifically, a persistent complaint in a formal economy still dominated by foreign concession holders.

Yekeson's confirmation now answers half of the question the Feminist Coalition raised days earlier, at least in terms of timeline; whether the new post counts as commensurate with Dagoseh's prior standing, and where she and George ultimately land, remains to be seen. For now, the Commerce Ministry has a new acting head facing an in-tray already full of business-climate complaints inherited from his predecessor.