A decade-long review of Sierra Leone’s governance has exposed a troubling paradox: while the country has made significant strides in transparency, corruption continues to remain deeply entrenched.

This is according to a 2025 report from Corruption Risk, an international governance monitoring platform.

Developed through a collaboration between the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building and the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center at the Center for International Private Enterprise, the report evaluates Sierra Leone’s progress in key areas of integrity and transparency.

The country scored 4.23 out of 10 for integrity and 11.5 out of 20 for transparency, ranking 95th out of 119 countries on integrity and 16th out of 143 on transparency.

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While Sierra Leone’s regional performance stands out, the report highlights a stagnation in the fight against corruption over the last decade. The country ranks 15th out of 31 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for integrity and 4th for transparency.

This places Sierra Leone among the most transparent nations in the region, particularly in relation to the publication of international aid and mining concession agreements. However, critical gaps remain in the country’s overall governance framework, preventing further progress in curbing corruption.

Despite these advances, the report underscores serious weaknesses in administrative transparency. The absence of key public data – particularly on land ownership, commercial registries, and building permits in Freetown – fuels opaque decision-making and allows for unchecked resource flows. These issues, the report notes, remain a significant obstacle to effective governance.

One of the most concerning findings is that corruption continues to thrive in an environment where opportunities for abuse – such as opaque public finance and weak regulation – outweigh constraints like judicial enforcement and civic oversight.

While Sierra Leone’s budget transparency has improved slightly over the past decade, rising from a score of 5.49 in 2013 to 6.99 in 2023, the country’s judicial independence and press freedom have both declined. Judicial independence dropped from 3.75 to 2.67, raising concerns about the impartiality of the country’s legal institutions. Similarly, press freedom, which plays a crucial role in holding public officials accountable, has also seen a decline, from 7.63 to 6.63.

Additionally, digital civic engagement remains low, with the e-citizenship score barely increasing from 1.76 to 1.81 over the past ten years. Although online services saw modest growth – from 2.53 to 3.52 – the country still lags behind global standards in digital access and public service delivery.

The report also highlights Sierra Leone’s broader development challenges. Despite improvements in life expectancy, which has risen to 62 years, the country remains in the low-income bracket with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of just USD 873. Its Human Development Index stands at 0.47, indicating limited progress in critical areas such as education and healthcare. Urbanization is at 45%, signaling slow but steady movement towards more urban living.

The Corruption Risk report calls for a more comprehensive approach to governance reform in Sierra Leone. To effectively address corruption, the country must not only maintain its transparency efforts but also strengthen the key institutional constraints that prevent corruption from flourishing. This includes bolstering judicial independence, protecting press freedom, and expanding digital access to citizens. Without these critical reforms, transparency alone may not be sufficient to prevent the misuse of public resources.

The full 2025 Corruption Risk report can be accessed on [www.corruptionrisk.org](http://www.corruptionrisk.org).