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Leone Ranks Second Weakest Currency in Africa for September 2025


The Sierra Leonean Leone has been ranked as the second weakest currency in Africa, according to a Forbes currency calculator report for September 2025, underscoring the lingering pressure on Sierra Leone’s economy despite recent signs of easing inflation.

The Forbes currency calculator, which sources real-time foreign exchange market data via the Open Exchange Rates API, updates every five minutes to reflect live trading values.

The system captures the impact of demand and supply, market sentiment, and broader economic conditions on each nation’s currency performance.



According to the data, the São Tomé & Príncipe Dobra (22,282 per $1) topped the list of Africa’s weakest currencies, followed by the Sierra Leonean Leone (20,970), Guinean Franc (8,680), Ugandan Shilling (3,503), and Burundian Franc (2,968). Others on the list include the Congolese Franc (2,811), Tanzanian Shilling (2,465), Malawian Kwacha (1,737), the Nigerian Naira (₦1,490 per $1), and the Rwandan Franc (1,448).

In contrast, the Tunisian Dinar (2.90 per $1), Libyan Dinar (5.40), Moroccan Dirham (9.91), Ghanaian Cedi (12.31), and Botswanan Pula (14.15) were ranked as the five strongest currencies in Africa.

The continent currently has 54 recognised countries, according to the United Nations and geographic data sources.

Meanwhile, Sierraloaded reported that Sierra Leone’s inflation rate showed significant improvement in 2025 with headline inflation dropping to 7.10% in June 2025, down from 7.55% in May 2025. This follows a reported 13.8% in December 2024.

A Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by Statistics Sierra Leone in June 2025 highlights a 0.26% month-on-month decline in consumer prices, reversing the 0.05% increase observed in May and marking a rare instance of deflation in the national economy.

In response, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL), following its quarterly meeting on July 24, 2025, announced a significant reduction in its key policy rates, effective July 29, 2025.

The move aims to sustain macroeconomic stability, address inflationary pressures, and stimulate private sector credit.

The Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) was reduced by 2 percentage points to 21.75%. Concurrently, the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR)  lowered to 23.75%, and the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) to 14.25%. These adjustments were approved by the BSL’s Board of Directors on July 28, 2025.



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Delegation From Africa Technology-Driven Company Interswitch Pays Courtesy Visit to RCBank Management


Akeem Lawal, the Managing Director of Interswitch, the Payment Processing and Switching (Pure pay) business division, along with the team from Nigeria, paid a courtesy visit to RCBank Management.

Interswitch is a leading technology-driven digital payments company, is actively shaping the payment landscape in the growing e-commerce sector in Africa.

The meeting focused on crucial topics such as the POS acquiring project, transaction processing engagement, Verve Card engagement, and strategic plans for business expansion in the Sierra Leone market.



Interswitch’s broad network and robust payments platform have been instrumental to the development of the Nigerian payments ecosystem and provide Interswitch with credibility to expand across Africa.

Today, Interswitch is a leading player with critical mass in Africa’s rapidly developing financial ecosystem and is active across the payments value chain, providing a full suite of omni-channel payment solutions.



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Orange Launches 6th Edition of OSVP in Sierra Leone And 14th Edition in Africa And The Middle East


Orange Sierra Leone launches the 6th edition of the Orange Social Venture Prize (OSVP) in Sierra Leone and 14th edition in Africa and the Middle East to support social innovation and encourage local entrepreneurship.

This will mark the 6th Edition of the OSVP competition in Sierra Leone and 14th edition in Africa and Middle East. The Competition will officially open for submission of applications Monday, March 25th 2024. Applicants from the 17 Orange affiliates in Africa and Middle East including Sierra Leone must apply for both the National and International competition and should submit their applications on or before 26th May 2024 at the website below:

Through this competition, Orange Sierra Leone, as a responsible corporate and social investor, aims to contribute to the human capital development, support local social and environmental innovations, and encourage entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone.



Since 2019, OSVP prize has been awarded to innovative projects in the field of education, healthcare, e-commerce, and agriculture and projects that contribute to achieving sustainable development goals using digital technology. The competition has two stages:

The National Stage

Applications will be submitted from the 25th March – 26th May 2024 for the National and Women’s competition. At the end of this application phase, a national pitch competition will be held in August 2024 to award the National and Women’s category winners. The winners will receive the following prizes:

  • NLe 200,000 – National Winner
  • NLe 120,000 – Women’s Winne

The International Stage

The National and Women category winners from each subsidiary in the 17 Orange affiliates in Africa and Middle East will automatically be selected for the international phase. After their evaluation, 10 finalists will be selected. A final jury of African tech influencers will select the top 3 winners of the OSVP International Grand Prize in October/November 2024.

As equal opportunity is a key aspect of Orange policy, an International Women’s Prize will also be awarded for the fifth consecutive year. This prize will be awarded to a woman who offers a technological solution to improve the living conditions of women (women’s independence, job creation or preservation, gender data collection, digital and financial inclusion, etc.).

The winners of the international and women’s competition will receive the following prizes:

  • €25,000 for 1st place international winner
  • €15,000 for 2nd place international winner
  • €10,000 for 3rd place international winner
  • €20,000 for Women’s international winner





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Sierra Leone Tops West Africa in Highest Food Price Inflation


A recent World Bank Food Security Update has ranked Sierra Leone top in the list of countries to have recorded the highest Price Inflation in West Africa.

The study covers a period of three months starting from March to June 2023.

Awoko Newspaper reported that Sierra Leone is at the apex after Nominal Food Inflation surged to a new peak of 58 percent. The West African nation surpasses its previous peak which was 56 percent.



The new data shows that Sierra Leone is at the top alongside West African neighbours, Ghana.

According to World Bank, the calculations include the use of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the overall data of the CPI.

Experts have said that the country’s food inflation is affecting the majority of low and middle income earners.

The government acknowledged that the country is undergoing one of its worst economic shocks due to the protracted effect of the Ukraine war and other factors.

Most of the countries affected by food inflation are in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Venezuela ranked top of the list in World Nominal Food Inflation with a score of 414 while Zimbabwe leads in Real Food Inflation with a score of 80.

Sierra Leone scores 58 in Nominal Food Inflation and 13 in Real Food Inflation.





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