Digital training is of little use if the people it is meant to serve cannot get through the classroom door. That is one idea distinguishing the agreement announced on September 23, 2026, between Liberia’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and technology company Cybastion. Their project calls for five technology and business innovation hubs for women, each with a child-care centre. Beyond computers and courses, the initiative therefore attempts to address a practical constraint on women’s entrepreneurship: having time to learn, run a business and meet potential partners.
An agreement signed, centres still to be built
Cybastion says its chief executive, Thierry Wandji, and Minister Gbeme Horace Kollie signed the agreement in New York during a roundtable held alongside the United Nations General Assembly. Public broadcaster Liberia Broadcasting System confirms the partnership and says the programme is intended to run for 36 months. It would be inaccurate, however, to describe the hubs as already open. According to the broadcaster, the first phase still includes choosing locations, conducting preliminary studies, building and equipping premises, and developing training courses and digital platforms.
The announced plan consists of a flagship campus in Monrovia and four regional sites in Voinjama, Gbarnga, Kakata and Buchanan. That geography is important: a programme confined to the capital would leave many entrepreneurs out. The five cities are meant to host business-development support and mentoring as well as digital learning. Detailed opening dates, the programme’s cost and eligibility rules are not set out in the announcements reviewed. Those details will need to be checked before its actual reach can be measured.
Child care is not a minor detail
Each site is meant to include a child-care centre. In its announcement, Cybastion presents this measure as an answer to one barrier keeping mothers from training and business activities. The logic is simple but often absent from skills programmes: access to a computer or a course does not remove the need to care for a young child. On-site child care could make several hours of learning genuinely manageable.
This provision, too, will have to be judged by its implementation. Opening hours, capacity, staffing and any fees will determine whether it meets participants’ needs. A child-care centre announced in a brochure does not automatically produce equal access. It does show that the partners have identified a material constraint that digital policies sometimes treat as unrelated to their mission.
Skills, but also routes to market
The initiative, called the Liberia Women’s Digital and Economic Empowerment Program, is intended to offer digital skills, entrepreneurship training and business-development support. Cybastion’s Theya Foundation will work with Cisco to deliver some courses through the Cisco Networking Academy, the company says. The public broadcaster also names agricultural value chains among the areas of focus. It refers to thousands of women across Lofa, Margibi, Grand Bassa, Bong and Montserrado counties, without providing a definitive numerical target or selection method.
The goal is not simply to hand someone a certificate, but to help an entrepreneur make better decisions and find new customers. The hubs are supposed to help women manage businesses, reach additional markets, connect with financial services and enter wider supply chains. Those ambitions require capable instructors, but also reliable connectivity, affordable tools and commercial partners willing to work with participants. Without those conditions, training could remain detached from the everyday economy.
A project to follow after the signing ceremony
The partnership brings together a ministry, a technology company and a digital-training partner. That combination can assemble resources none would command alone. It also calls for transparency: who will pay to build and operate the five sites, who will own the equipment, how will participants’ data be handled and who will maintain services after the stated 36 months? The available sources do not yet answer all of these questions. Raising them is not to dismiss the project; it is to take its goals seriously.
For entrepreneurs outside Monrovia, the first indicators will be concrete: whether regional centres actually open, whether child care is available, whether hours suit their working lives, whether teaching is useful and whether mentoring continues. Economic results will take longer to assess. Any claim about an effect on businesses should examine whether they can sell more effectively, access finance or sustain operations after training ends.
The announcement matters because it combines those two perspectives. Liberia plans to strengthen the digital capabilities of women already contributing to its economy while recognising that participation depends on highly practical social conditions. Five hubs and child-care centres do not yet amount to a completed transformation. They are verifiable commitments whose value will be measured in the selected towns, by the women who can actually use them.
Sources
- Cybastion, Liberia Women’s Digital and Economic Empowerment Program announcement: partners, five locations, child care and aims.
- Liberia Broadcasting System, September 23, 2026 report: duration, target counties and work planned for the first phase.