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Sierra Leone is projected to experience significant economic growth of 4.4% in 2025 and 4.8% in 2026, primarily fueled by the services, mining, and agriculture sectors.
This optimistic outlook comes from the Country Focus Report (CFR) 2025, which reviews the nation’s economic performance amidst a challenging global environment.
The CFR 2025, themed “Making Sierra Leone’s Capital Work Better for Its Development,” provides an in-depth analysis of recent economic developments, key macroeconomic indicators, their drivers, and short-to-medium-term projections.
It also assesses the economic prospects in light of global trade tensions, geopolitical factors, and potential domestic and international shocks. A key component of the report is its evaluation of strategies to boost domestic capital mobilization and utilization.
Halima Hashi, the African Development Bank’s Country Manager for Sierra Leone, stated during the virtual launch of the report that real GDP growth in Sierra Leone slowed to 3.9% in 2024, down from 5.7% in 2023. This slowdown was mainly attributed to inflationary pressures. However, she noted that the 2024 growth was still driven by services, mining, and agriculture, supported by prudent macroeconomic policies that helped mitigate inflation.
“Economic growth is projected to accelerate to 4.4% in 2025 and further to 4.8% in 2026, driven by mining and services and supported by ongoing reforms to transform the agriculture sector,” Hashi affirmed. She urged the Government of Sierra Leone to maintain its pace of reforms to foster economic diversification, especially given current global economic headwinds and the worldwide trend of countries strengthening domestic resource mobilization.
Deputy Minister of Finance II, Bockarie Kalokoh, delivered the keynote address, highlighting recent favorable domestic economic indicators. He reiterated the projection of 4.4% growth in 2025, up from 4% in 2024, crediting stronger performance in the mining, agriculture, and services sectors.
Kalokoh also pointed to easing inflation, with the latest figures showing a reduction from 9.38% in April to 7.55% in May 2025. He noted the relative stability of the Leone against the US Dollar since the latter half of 2023, and a narrowing fiscal deficit from 5.3% of GDP in 2023 to 4.8% in 2024, which he attributed to the government’s fiscal consolidation efforts.
The Deputy Minister welcomed the report’s recommendations for activating mitigation measures, including accelerating the Feed Salone programme and strengthening institutional capacity for climate action. He also emphasized efforts to scale up domestic resource mobilization, particularly from the mining sector. Kalokoh concluded by reaffirming the government’s commitment to continued collaboration with development partners, the private sector, and other external bodies to ensure capital effectively contributes to Sierra Leone’s development.
