The U.S. Department of State’s Investment Climate Statements help U.S. companies make informed business decisions by providing up-to-date information on the investment climates of more than 170 countries and economies. They are prepared by our embassies and consulates around the world and analyze each economy’s openness to foreign investment. Topics include:

• Openness to, and Restrictions upon, Foreign Investment,

• Investment and Taxation Treaties,

• Legal Regime,

• Industrial Policies,

• Protection of Property Rights,

• Financial Sector,

• State-owned Enterprises,

• Corruption,

• Labor Policies and Practices,

• Political and Security Environment, and

• U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Other Investment Insurance or Development Finance Programs

Each statement provides a starting point for U.S. firms and offers a point of contact at the relevant U.S. embassy or consulate abroad.

These reports are also a resource for foreign governments to create business environments that ensure fair treatment for the United States and our companies and investors. 

To access the full Investment Climate Statement, visit the U.S. Department of State

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, with an estimated population of 9.3 million people, is located on the coast of West Africa between Guinea in the north and northeast, Liberia in the south and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west, with a land area of 27,703 square miles and a humid tropical climate.

Sierra Leone offers significant investment potential across numerous sectors. The country is rich in mineral reserves and natural resources with:

• a favorable tropical climate,
• fertile soil advantageous for agriculture,
• extensive continental shelf with multiple varieties of fishery resources,
  a natural environment offering touristic prospects, and
• vast mineral resources, especially:
  iron ore,
  diamonds,
  gold,
  rutile,
  ilmenite,
  lithium,
  coltan, and
  bauxite.
   

Opportunities for foreign investment also exist in:

• energy,
• water
• telecommunications, and
• other infrastructure.
   

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is crucial to the country’s economic recovery. Therefore, successive governments prioritized both outreach and policy reforms to drive FDI into the country.

Opportunities for public-private partnership projects in energy, water, telecommunications, and other public infrastructure abound. Investors benefit from several preferential trade agreements. These include:

• preferential and largely duty-free access to the Mano River Union market of more than 50 million,
• duty-free access for qualifying goods under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) market of over 350 million, and
• progressive tariff liberalization under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) of about 54 African countries with a combined population of more than one billion.
   

The country also benefits from the European Union’s Everything but Arms initiative and the United States African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

President Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) was re-elected for a second term in June 2023 in an election that credible international and domestic observers found was marred by logistical challenges and irregularities that called into question the integrity of the election results. An internationally facilitated mediated dialogue with the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) has reduced interparty tensions, created a number of vehicles for ongoing dialogue, and yielded a bipartisan plan for electoral reform to improve the legal and regulatory framework for elections moving forward.

The Government of Sierra Leone has based its Medium-Term National Development Plan 2024-2030 around the so-called “Big Five Game Changers:”

• food security and investment in agriculture;
• human capital development;
• youth employment;
• improved public service; and
• technology and infrastructure, especially in digitizing the financial sector and expanding the power sector.
   

The government has taken actions to improve the country’s investment climate, including the enactment of the Arbitration Act 2022 and the establishment of the National Investment Board (NIB)  to facilitate investment by streamlining business registration and offering support services. Additionally, incentives such as tax holidays, duty exemptions on imported capital goods, and reduced land costs for industrial use make Sierra Leone an attractive investment destination.

There are, however, remaining legislative, institutional, and regulatory challenges to investment, including in the areas of:

• governance and rule of law,
  dispute resolution, and
  finance.
• Poor quality and limited public infrastructure also pose significant investment challenges as the country lacks the capacity necessary to support many commercial activities. Challenges similarly persist in areas such as:
• corruption,
• availability of skilled labor,
• access to land, and
• contract enforcement.

Sierra Leone is highly vulnerable to external economic shocks and has a somewhat challenging macroeconomic environment. An International Monetary Fund program approved in November 2024 was intended to support inclusive growth through macroeconomic policy reforms and targeted social spending; confront corruption; and strengthen governance, institutions, and the rule of law. The program has successfully brought down inflation and established currency exchange rate stability. However, it has been less successful in bolstering debt sustainability, addressing fiscal deficits, and rebuilding hard currency reserves. The government’s failure to control spending adequately, its penchant for domestic borrowing, and its inability to increase revenues lie at the heart of the program’s challenges.

To access the Sierra Leone ICS, visit the U.S. Department of State Investment Climate Statements website.