NOKETECH Scam Finally Entangles Foreign Minister – As 19 Applicants Denied US Study Visa-Mo Ali, Others Wants JNB Take Decisive Action

MONROVIA – When President Joseph Nyuma Boakai launched his flagship “No-Collateral Loan Scheme for Students” on November 6, 2024, in partnership with the Ghana-based education firm NEKOTECH, it was a moment of sublime joy for many young Liberians who could only dream of pursuing graduate degrees overseas.

Indeed, the Liberian leader was living up his government’s ARREST Agenda manifesto which is supposed to prioritize human capacity development to address Liberia’s perennial skilled workforce problem.Well, it seems the students’ bubble of contentment has finally been ruptured following months of false hopes and false starts. The United States Embassy in Monrovia on Monday, December 30, 2024, reportedly denied 19 of the 20 applicants who applied for visas to pursue postgraduate studies in America under the highly controversial NEKOTECH scholarship program that everyone, including Unity Party former Secretary General Mo Ali, is now labeling as a scam of the grandest design.

Mr. Ali and other interested Liberians are in fact recommending that President Boakai take immediate action to fix the NEKOTECH problem that is threatening to damage the country’s image internally and externally, beginning with his Foreign Minister.Appearing on the Spoon Live Talk Show on Wednesday, January 1, 2024, Mr. Ali who now serves in the Rescue Government as Managing Director of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) voiced his disappointment over the shoddy way the NEKOTECH program was introduced into Liberia without the designated government officials doing proper due diligence.“The Foreign Minister brought in the issue of the NEKOTECH scholarship.

The president appoints every one of us and he trusts our ability and integrity. If for any reason the foreign ministry did not do due diligence and made the president launch it, I am not going to hold the president. I will hold the president if he doesn’t act. And we will make that representation to the president: ‘Mr. President, investigate this and whatever action needs to be taken, you should take such action’.“We now know that the NEKOTECH thing was a prayer thing, it wasn’t a guaranteed scholarship issue. It was something that you put your money in, you sit in the corner and pray to God that the Embassy will grant you a visa. So, that one, I am not going to stand for it, I am not going to stand by it, because we did not come to make people pray for scholarship.

And I agree with everyone who says there should be some form of punishment, some form of action. I agree with everyone. I am not going to sit and back it even when we know it is not working,” Mr. Ali stated emphatically when he appeared as a panelist on the Spoon Live Talk Show.The statement from Mo Ali comes in the wake of startling revelations on Spoon Talk Live that the Manager of the NEKOTECH scholarship program had begged those applicants who were denied visa opportunities to avoid talking to the media about their disappointing saga at the US Embassy, but should instead get on their knees and pray for divine intervention.Sara Beysolow-Nyanti: Burden of the NEKOTECH Blame According to Spoon Live Talk Show host Stanton Witherspoon, the gauntlet for the NEKOTECH scholarship fiasco should be placed squarely at the doorsteps of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madam Sara Beysolow-Nyanti who he said reportedly fooled President Joseph Boakai into believing that she had secured a US$25 million scholarship for Liberian students to pursue postgraduate degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Business and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at renowned institutions in the United States and Canada.

Foreign Minister Nyanti had reportedly used her long-standing friendship with the Executive Chairperson of the Nekotech Center of Excellence, H.E. Rev. Dr. A.K. Ocansey, to convince Liberians and their government about the scholarship scheme.“The students sent texts to me that they paid $535 through the Embassy. $350 for the service and $185 for the visa application.

This is Sara Beysolow-Nyanti’s program. You know it was confirmed by the Minister of Information, Jeronlimeck Piah after they said we were awarded $25 million for this project. The woman came to Liberia and said no, everybody for themselves, God for all. The only thing she could offer was fast and prayer. How did we get here? Isn’t this a disgrace to this Rescue government, that poor people are spending $535 through the Embassy, and the rest of the amount they spent, where are they going to get their money?“The President went and endorsed the program, the president championed it, the president called for a press conference, and the president celebrated this. But this was a scam.

Don’t you think it’s a disgrace to him as well?“I have one of the messages, they are begging the students not to bring it to the press that they have been denied. But one of the students got so angry and said, no, I am going to reach out to Stanton. I am going to share all the documents with you; that we are denied because they feel that this program is a scam program.Displaying on screen some of the students’ messages sent to him, Stanton Witherspoon admitted that the students begged him to showcase their plight, and that they are even willing to appear on the show to voice their frustration.

And this is one of the intriguing messages from Dr. Ocansey begging the failed visa applicants to pray for divine intervention:“Thank you, team. So far it seems 19 people wrote down their names. We have 2 people who were not denied visas- so this meets the normal 90% refusal rate Liberia embassy operates at. We will however not give up, if you have not sent in your questions and responses and refusal slip.

Please do so now – we must stand strongly together till victory. Let’s be very silent in continued prayer till there is a turn around and there can be! Remember the scripture? Hezekiah was sentenced to die. He prayed till God turned his situation around and added 15 years to his life! This is not the time for small boys to start making noise and crying, this is the time for great…”“It’s an embarrassment for the Foreign Ministry because this was a Sara Beysolow-Nyanyi project. We are in 2025, and this is not a joke. What Sara Beysolow did to the children and the people is disgraceful.

They have lost a lot of money, and they will continue to lose a lot of money if President Boakai doesn’t put a stop to it. She asked the president to champion this cause. It was a disgrace that the President called media institutions to say yes, they have awarded us millions of dollars. And the information minister, since that day cannot speak on this matter. It’s quite embarrassing, because he was being fooled that yes, this was a good project. We can’t sit here and allow it to slide,” Mr. Witherspoon disclosed angrily.Unanimous retort: Investigate NEKOTECH, refund students’ funds, take actionsPerhaps in an unprecedented setting, all of the other panelists on the Spoon Live Talk Show were in complete agreement with host Stanton Witherspoon and Mo Ali regarding the NEKOTECH scandal.According to Dr. Francien Chenoweth Richardson, the purpose of a government is to protect its citizens, but she believes that the Boakai administration has dropped the ball in the NEKOTECH scholarship scheme.“I believe that the endorsement of the President and having ministers coming on this show to endorse this program was fraudulent to the Liberian people.

They were not protected, to the extent that many Liberians continued to believe that this program is legit, and they have paid $535 and more. So, to me, I believe that they should go beyond investigation. Somebody should be held liable for lying to these students. Somebody should be held liable for someone to come to our country with a checkered past, to come here and tell these people that you can come to the United States without having the proper affidavit of support, and that support has to be equivalent to what the school requires in terms of tuition, and if you don’t have that, they’re not going to give you a visa. Someone must be held liable for lying to the Liberian people, so this doesn’t happen again.

In this case, our government did not protect its citizens,” Dr. Richardson stated bitterly.As for panelist Garmondeh Clinton, a Liberian lawyer based in the United States, people should not be posing questions about who is to be blamed for the NEKOTECH scholarship failure.“We know for a fact that the President of Liberia, Joseph Boakai sat and announced this program. This is a government project in collaboration with NEKOTECH. How can Mo Ali be on this show and be talking about whoever is involved? Mo Ali should criticize the president because he was the one who announced NIKOTECH in the first place.

Let Mo go ahead and tell the president that the president was in error, that the program was a scam,” Mr. Clinton averred.For his part, Mr. Angacee Dualu is especially peeved about the whole NEKOTECH scam that is creating reputational issues for the Boakai administration which he continues to wholeheartedly defend.“Some of the insults we get about this administration, I can take them on. What I cannot take is something that is indefensible. Whenever the government attaches itself to something, it shows credibility; Liberian people will believe what is being purported out there.

When you see me screaming that I don’t want President Boakai’s picture on any small trophy or bookbag, it’s because it takes away from the true image of the government. For the government to attach itself to something so fishy as NEKOTECH, without doing its due diligence, is wrong. If we were a serious country, all those kids would get together and they could file a class action or lawsuit against the government, and the government would have to refund their money because the government gave it validity, and that validity is legal.“I am a Christian myself, but I am practical as well. When you and someone are doing business, as soon as they put God’s business inside, run away from them. God is not going to sign your contract.

He’s not going to deliver to you. God is not going to do anything for you that you cannot do for yourself. God gave you a brain. God can only help you in the process if you make the right decision. If the person that is taking your money is quoting scriptures to you, run away from the person. It’s not how God works. We need to stop it,” Mr. Duala intoned bitterly.Renowned journalist Gibson W. Jerue, for his part, said NEKOTECH failed the students because they did not do the necessary to ensure them obtaining students’ visas for their academic sojourn.“When I read some time ago, when President Joseph Boakai on November 7, 2024 launched the NOKETECH program with a fanfare, I was wondering if the president was very sure of what he was doing. Now that this situation is becoming a more fraudulent process, where students have been allegedly duped of their money, I think the president should have a say in this process.

The first thing they need to do is to give the people money back.“The reason why they probably denied them is because there was no guarantee from the institutions they were coming to. When you are coming on a I-20 Visa, the US Embassy or the State Department will liaise with the school that you are coming to, and that school will send a letter of attestation that you have been accepted into the school. It probably didn’t happen in the situation of these students.“The issue of bringing financial assets is not just sufficient. You have to prove that you are actually coming to school.

I believe NEKOTECH did not do their work very well. And why the $535? I thought this was a guaranteed amount that if you get a visa then you go, but if you don’t get a visa, then what happens?“I think it’s not fair. The president was involved. He launched this, he knows about this. The Foreign Minister is involved, she knows about this. They should be able to come in and correct the mistake. Otherwise, it speaks bad about the president’s image, it speaks bad about the Foreign Minister’s image; and it continues to ring a bell to the Liberian people that even their government can scam them. It’s not about institutions alone scamming them, but it’s about governments participating in scamming their own citizens,” Mr. Jerue complained. As for long-time Rescue Mission critic Issac Doe, he is surprised that the Rescue Mission has turned into a scam mission.“When we were growing up, we always heard that governments run after scammers. But in 2024 and 2025, the government itself is a scammer. This was a government of Liberia program. Let’s not make it fine.

The Foreign Minister represents the interest of the president to the outside world. The Foreign Minister went out and brought the program. The President is the head of the government. The President launched the program. The Minister of Information is the mouthpiece for the government. The Minister of Information came on this same platform and defended the program. It did not stop there. The program itself was on the official page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is a government of Liberia scam program. The highest level of government was involved in this program.“Today, we have Liberians who should be protected by the government being scammed by the same government. And someone only talking about paying the children money back,” Mr. Doe stated.Closing the conversation on the NEKOTECH scandal, Montserrado County District #10 Representative Yekeh Korlobah said no one should blame any other government official but President Joseph Boakai himself.“Why are people afraid to say that President Boakai robbed his own citizens? What investigation should be done? President Boakai knows who brought NIKOTECH.

Let him act,” Representative Korlubah stated emphatically.All efforts to contact Foreign Minister Nyanti and Information Minister Piah for their reactions to the Spon Live Talk Show commentaries proved futile as both ministers failed to respond to our queries up to press time.

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