Sierra Leone Needs Tech Investments

Sierra Leone is a small country of about 9 million people located on the coast of West Africa. It was given its modern name by Portuguese explorers, but became part of British Colonial Africa until independence in 1961.

Sierra Leone has one of the lowest per-person income levels in the world, with its economy essentially destroyed by a civil war in the 1990s that finally ended in 2002. Today it still relies on agriculture and mining as the basis of its economy.

Sierra Leone also has a government that seems willing to bring significant progress to the country, through efforts at participating in global discussions and the potential investment they bring. As an example, Hon Ibrahim Sannoh, the country's Deputy Minister of Communication, Technology & Innovation, for example was a panel participant at theDigital Government Africa Summitin Lusaka, held late in 2023. “We are working to enhance sustainable Digital Economy development,” he said. “We are also looking at developing a national data center and developing road maps to leverage where we are (at the moment).” Sannoh's thoughts were echoed by members of the panel from Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ghana, with one minister noting, “the challenges across the continent are similar (and) digital infrastructure is the key issue.”

The IDCA Digital Readiness Index, which integrates hundreds of factors into an overall relative progress score finds that Sierra Leone is primed for a highly dynamic era. Given its very low income, the country is nonetheless progressing at a rate that places it fifth among the more than 60 LDCs across the world. It trails only Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania in this aspect – and each of these countries is making notable progress as well.

Sierra Leone ranks above the world average in the Index in its current pace of progress, and is in the top 50% of all countries in all income categories in its relative progress. It currently generates 75% of its electricity from renewable energy. Despite recent progress, Sierra Leone has a critical need to increase internet access and speed, despite having relatively strong mobile connectivity given its low income. The country also badly needs investors to step up and build real data centers, in the country's coastal capital city of Freetown, as well as in its numerous provincial areas.