Liberia's president-elect George Weah said improving the welfare of Liberians would rank as his top most priority when he takes office in January.

Weah, who spoke for the first time after he was declared as the winner of the presidential run-off election in the country on Friday, vowed to assemble a government that will be dedicated to delivering a new lease on life for the Liberian people.

"Those wishing to cheat the Liberian people through the menace of corruption will have no place in my government," the former soccer star said at his Coalition for Democratic Change Party headquarters in the capital city of Monrovia.

Weah said his administration will build on the institutional gains of the government led by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and called on Liberians in foreign countries to return home for a new and better experience.

Weah emerges as Liberia's 25th president when he takes office in January.

(Xinhua News Agency, January 1, 2018)