Sierra Leone is moving to align its investment laws, policies and institutions with the African Continental Free Trade Area’s investment framework as the country seeks to attract more sustainable and intra-African capital.
The AfCFTA Secretariat and the Sierra Leonean government held a stakeholder engagement, validation and capacity-building workshop in Freetown on Sept. 14-15 to assess the country’s investment framework and identify reforms needed to implement the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment.
The workshop was organised under the Protocol on Investment Implementation and Support Programme, with support from the Overseas Development Institute. It brought together government agencies, private-sector representatives and other stakeholders to review a diagnostic of Sierra Leone’s investment environment and establish priorities for reform.
Discussions centred on improving coordination among institutions responsible for investment, expanding access to investment information and ensuring greater consistency between national investment laws and policies and regional and continental frameworks.
The process comes as African countries work to translate the AfCFTA’s investment rules into national frameworks, with the aim of making it easier for investors to operate across borders and strengthening the flow of capital within the continent.
For Sierra Leone, the next stage will be the development of a practical roadmap covering legal, policy and institutional reforms. The roadmap is expected to set out measures to strengthen the country’s capacity to attract and facilitate sustainable investment, including investment originating from other African countries.
The reforms will also seek to improve coordination between Sierra Leone’s national investment framework and wider Economic Community of West African States and AfCFTA commitments.
The AfCFTA investment protocol forms part of the agreement’s broader effort to create a more integrated African market by establishing common rules and frameworks for investment across participating countries.
For Sierra Leone, aligning its domestic framework with the continental regime could provide a clearer basis for investment facilitation while addressing institutional and regulatory gaps identified through the diagnostic exercise.
