Digital financial services training. Photo by UNCDF Sierra Leone
Digital financial services training. Photo by UNCDF Sierra Leone
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Sierra Leone

Digital Financial Services

Overview

The project successfully piloted digital financial services products such as savings, mobile credit and insurance as well as financial literacy for women, youths and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. It also contributed to policy development and technical support in the area of financial technology and strengthened the financial sector to support the financial inclusion of low-income populations, giving them access to loans and savingsfor spending onbetter health care, education and other services. Three core project interventions implemented were the establishment of an investment facility (catalytic funding), advocacy and capacity-building, and evidence-based learning and knowledge sharing.

Beneficiaries

Low-income population, MSMEs

Partners

Ministry of Finance and Economic Development; Bank of Sierra Leone; United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Sierra Leone

Budget

$1,000,000

Duration

September 2018–June 2021

Mostly contributing to

Key Results

Results Highlights

• The project has led to increased adoption and use of innovative digital services in Sierra Leone. A total of 75,209 new clients were served with financial products, and 58,234 new clients were provided with loans (the emergency COVID-19 credit product).

• The project provided inputs to improve regulatory provisions to strengthen institutional capacity to formulate and implement the FinTech regulatory framework for Sierra Leone. Two regulations have already been passed (Agency guidelines, Tiered Know Your Client and the regulatory sandbox framework) gazette by the central Bank. 

• Technical support has been provided to the Bank of Sierra Leone to draft customer protection guidelines and operationalize the national financial literacy framework. However, to advance the activities, the project has initiated the roll-out of customer protection guidelines. The project sponsored a customer protection course for three central bank employees. The development of a new Consumer Protection Framework for Retail Financial Services has been finalized, which emphasizes protection to women, micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and youth while engaging with the financial system. 

• 8 Bank of Sierra Leone staff have been certified as digital-money and consumer-protection practitioners through two online training courses.

Lessons learned

The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of digital financial-service interventions, and it is critical for Sierra Leone to further accelerate the growth of the sector through innovative digital financial products and services that meet the needs of different population segments through more technical and capital investments than initially estimated.

The market needs to build networks with other similar markets where financial technologies have demonstrated scalable solutions, hence the real need for South-South cooperation. The tremendous human capital and know-how could be leveraged through South-South cooperation in more-developed markets such as India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa, which could partner with local players to create added value and investments beyond the project.

Way forward

The project has successfully completed the planned activities and is currently undertaking its final evaluation. 

In 2021, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), in partnership with the Bank of Sierra Leone and with support from the IBSA Fund, published the State of the Digital Financial Services Market in Sierra Leone report for 2020. The report presents the findings that stem from the Annual Provider survey, conducted in early 2021, among digital finance service providers in Sierra Leone. It identifies development constraints faced by industry players and proposes opportunities that can be leveraged to make digital financial services more inclusive and accessible to all Sierra Leoneans. The findings from the report can also help regulators and policy makers to refine their development priorities and strategies.

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