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Sierra Leonean Leone Ends 2025 as Second Weakest Currency in Africa


The Sierra Leonean Leone has concluded the year as the second weakest currency on the African continent, trading at nearly 21,000 to the United States dollar, according to year-end financial data released this week.

In a ranking of the ten African countries with the weakest currencies at the close of 2025, Sierra Leone placed second only to São Tomé & Príncipe. According to data cited from the Forbes Calculator, the Leone ended the year trading at 20,970 per US dollar.

This valuation places the Leone in a significantly more precarious position than regional peers.While São Tomé & Príncipe’s Dobra traded at 22,282 to the dollar, the gap between Sierra Leone and the third-ranked country, Guinea, is stark. The Guinean Franc ended the year trading at 8,741 to the dollar—less than half the exchange rate of the Leone.



For nations like Sierra Leone, such a depressed exchange rate frequently exacerbates daily hardships for citizens. The report notes that weak currencies tend to “increase inflation, deepen poverty, discourage investment, and impair a state’s ability to withstand shocks.”

While the report highlighted specific crises in South Sudan and Ethiopia regarding rapid depreciation and oil export reliance, the absolute value of the Leone against the dollar remains among the lowest on the continent. This devaluation makes imports significantly more expensive, hampering local businesses that struggle to plan or grow when operating costs fluctuate wildly.

The data reveals a challenging financial landscape for several East and West African nations. Following Sierra Leone, the top five weakest currencies were rounded out by the Guinean Franc, the Malagasy Ariary, and the Ugandan Shilling.

Top 5 Weakest African Currencies (End of 2025):

São Tomé & Príncipe Dobra: 22,282 per USD

Sierra Leonean Leone: 20,970 per USD

Guinean Franc: 8,741 per USD

Malagasy Ariary: 4,577 per USD

Ugandan Shilling: 3,610 per USD

As the country moves into 2026, the data suggests that stabilizing the Leone will be critical to restoring investor confidence and curbing inflationary pressures that affect the average Sierra Leonean household.



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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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