General profile Digital profile

Sierra Leone

Digital Snapshot – Key Policies and Laws

Sierra Leone’s digital agenda is being built around a dense policy stack rather than a single flagship law. The main public anchors are the Digital Development Policy (2021), the National Digital Development Strategy (2023), the National Data Strategy (2023), the National Innovation and Digital Strategy (2019–2029), the National Broadband Strategy (2023–2028), and public cyber policy and strategy documents listed by MoCTI. In the UN’s 2024 index, Sierra Leone ranked 172/193 overall in e-government, but its E-Participation rank improved to 120/193 from 157/193 in 2022, a notable gain in citizen-facing digital engagement.

The most consequential current governance development is data protection. In September 2025, the government opened nationwide consultations on what it called Sierra Leone’s first data protection law, followed in October by a pre-legislative review of the draft Data Protection and Right to Access Information Regulatory Commission Bill, 2025. This reform would sit alongside the older Right of Access to Information Act, 2013, which already gives Sierra Leone a transparency framework but not a full personal-data regime.

Data first, AI next

Sierra Leone is advancing a draft data protection law, described by authorities in 2025 as the country’s first comprehensive framework for regulating personal data. The proposed legislation follows nationwide consultations and is intended to define rules for data collection, processing, and oversight in a context where no full data protection regime is yet in force. In parallel, the government has launched an AI readiness assessment to examine infrastructure, skills, and regulatory capacity as a basis for a future national AI strategy. These processes are led by government ministries responsible for information, communication, and innovation, with support from international partners. Existing governance tools relevant to both areas currently include the Cyber Security and Crime Act (2021) and access-to-information legislation.

On AI governance, Sierra Leone is still in a preparation phase. In late 2025, MoCTI said it was leading an AI Readiness Assessment with World Bank support to evaluate infrastructure, skills, and the policy environment ahead of a future national AI strategy; the older Innovation and Digital Strategy already identifies applied AI for governance as a policy area. The result is a governance model in which AI is being folded into broader digital-transformation planning, while the legal and regulatory architecture is still incomplete.

On cybersecurity and infrastructure, Sierra Leone has moved further from strategy into operational capability. The legal basis is the Cyber Security and Crime Act, 2021, and the state also has public cybersecurity policy and strategy documents on MoCTI’s resource page. In January 2025, the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre announced the launch of a national CSIRT and digital forensics lab. At the same time, infrastructure resilience remains a major issue: the government’s own Digital Transformation Project states that Sierra Leone still relies on a single submarine fibre cable, which is why talks on a second submarine cable began in 2025.

Sierra Leone’s digital economy is growing, but still at an early stage. The US International Trade Administration says e-commerce is still nascent, with mobile-money services such as Orange Money, Africell Money, and WAVE serving as the main payment rails; MoCTI’s published Electronic Transaction Bill 2019 shows that the legal basis for online transactions remains incomplete. Sierra Leone also lacks a separate public 5G strategy; 5G is instead embedded in the National Broadband Strategy, while cloud and other emerging technologies are being developed through broader digital-economy and infrastructure plans rather than a dedicated cloud policy.

The country has a relatively broad strategy base, active work on privacy law, an AI-readiness process, a live cybersecurity build-out, and a strong focus on broadband, data, and public digital systems through the US$50 million Sierra Leone Digital Transformation Project.