Africa. After the liquidation of USAID, fear fell on hotels, restaurants and car workshops

Thanks to the American assistance transferred to Africa through the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID, local services developed, which was used by the staff of this organization. Among other things, it's about expensive hotels, restaurants, shops and car workshops. They were the first to feel the lack of wealthy customers.

With the start of office by the new administration of Donald Trump, the Department of State USA and the United States International Development Agency decided to suspend the financing of many aid programs.

In Africa, the reference to the United States of USAID employees quickly resulted in the termination of projects conducted by this agenda. And dozens of people were employed to service each of them. For example, in Liberia, there were just over 100 people in Liberia, but several thousand well -paid employees dealt with hundreds of millions of dollars.

They came from both the United States and Liberia, and thanks to high salaries they slowly formed a local middle class. Everything was broken with the decision of Donald Trump's administration to terminate USAID activities.

They hope that “perturbations will pass”

– Several conferences were canceled at my hotel overnight, and we organized a few weeks a week. Our restaurant and cafe also felt their departure (USAID employees – ed.

– In a moment we will feel it even harder. We have just completed the construction of a new complex with apartments for long -term rental, but it may turn out that there will be no one to hire them – he adds. However, she is comforted by the fact that her family business survived in Liberia two ruining country civil wars, so she is convinced that these “perturbations will pass”.

The owners of the building located in front of the currently glowing empty of the USAID headquarters in Monrowia also count. At the gate of a four -story apartment building with a view of the ocean, from which it is 50 meters, for two months there is a large plaque with the inscription “For rent”. But there are no people willing.

“They were our best clients”

However, the owners of car workshops were probably in the worst situation. In most African countries, repair or only a car service in a workshop is associated with a considerable risk of losing the original part, which did not require any repair. Trustworthy plants are extremely expensive and there are usually very few of them, which is why they are besieged by owners of more expensive cars.

– They were our best clients. Everyone who came to the contract, bought a new car, usually a off -road, well -equipped Toyota. One day we lost several dozen customers. And in a moment, all three workshops in the city will lose hundreds, because local satellites will soon understand that without the generous salaries they will no longer be able to afford cars bought for $ 40,000 – complains Michael, Lebanese running a car workshop at Benson Street in the capital of Liberia. As evidence, he showed a thick notebook with a long list of vehicles. More than half was crossed out in red. – These are not all the losses, I will wait with the removal of the others, because maybe not everyone took the cars to the USA – he added.

Restaurants are empty

Popular restaurants are also empty in Monrowia, which can be counted in the city on one hand.

– I opened this place especially for Americans from USAID. Every day they came for coffee and cake. On weekends they brought books, because here is silence and you can take shelter from the sun. Now someone rarely looks here – says Gloria, who admits that she has never complained about crowds in her cafe, a modest, but strategically located in the alley between the US embassy and the seat of USAID. Now, without regular guests, he does not see the point of doing business.

Liberia is not a country besieged by tourists, services are strongly supported by expatas, such as USAID employees or numerous agencies UN.