A high-level delegation of World Bank Group executive directors has concluded a three-day working visit to Sierra Leone, capping a packed programme of government engagements, sector briefings, and on-the-ground field inspections that stretched from Port Loko in the northwest to Kailahun District in the far east.
The delegation led by Executive Director Dr. Zarau Kibwe and comprising seven Executive Directors and three Alternate Directors representing 67 countries holds 39% of the World Bank’s total voting power, making it one of the most significant contingents to visit Sierra Leone in recent memory. The mission’s stated purpose was to assess the real-world impact of the Bank’s programmes in Sierra Leone, understand the country’s development needs, and identify both opportunities and challenges going forward.
The delegation’s first major stop was a courtesy call on Minister of Finance Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, who briefed the board on the state of the economy and the government’s priority development agenda. He highlighted interventions under the National Development Plan including Free Quality Education, the Feed Salone food security programme, energy infrastructure, and tourism while acknowledging that Sierra Leone has faced a series of external shocks since 2018 that have affected macroeconomic stability, including pressures on inflation, the exchange rate, and public debt.
Despite those pressures, the tone was broadly optimistic. Minister Bangura noted that the country’s World Bank portfolio has now been extended to one billion dollars, a milestone he credited partly to the government’s sustained reform commitments. That optimism is grounded in data: Sierra Leone’s economy grew an estimated 4.5% in 2025, supported by robust agricultural output under the Feed Salone programme and stronger services activity, while inflation fell to a multi-decade low of 4.3% in December 2025.
The visit also came as Sierra Leone contends with fresh external pressures. Inflation rebounded to 8.1% in February 2026, reflecting a domestic fuel price increase and ongoing fallout from the Middle East conflict, which is driving up freight, fertiliser, and oil costs. Spokesperson for the delegation, Madam Zainab Ahmed representing the constituency of Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa assured that the Bank would continue to support Sierra Leone in managing those headwinds.
What distinguished this visit from routine diplomatic engagements was the delegation’s determination to see World Bank money at work beyond the capital. Over the weekend of April 25 and 26, the board members fanned out across the country to inspect four major projects on the ground.
In Port Loko District, they toured a $30 million onion farming project co-supported by the IFC and World Bank in Mathen Lokomasama Chiefdom, Lungi part of a broader push to commercialise smallholder agriculture and reduce Sierra Leone’s dependence on food imports. From there, the delegation moved to Newton, Waterloo, to examine the over $52 million RESPITE energy project, a critical investment in a country where electricity access remains one of the most stubborn development constraints.
The most symbolically charged stop came in Kailahun District, where the group visited both the Manowa Bridge construction project and the Jojoima Health Centre. The Manowa Bridge a 180-metre structure with 250-metre approach roads is being built under the Smallholder Commercialisation and Agribusiness Development Project (SCADeP) and will replace a manual cable ferry crossing long considered dangerous for residents and traders. Minister of Agriculture Henry Musa Kpaka noted that the bridge will significantly improve farmers’ ability to move produce to regional markets, boosting smallholder incomes across both Kailahun and Kenema districts. The total investment in rural connectivity under SCADeP stands at over $30 million.
The Jojoima facility represents an even larger commitment: a $257 million investment in health infrastructure in one of Sierra Leone’s most underserved districts a figure that reflects both the scale of the challenge and the Bank’s long-term bet on the country’s health system.
On Friday April 24, the delegation met with President Julius Maada Bio at the State House, where Executive Directors from Italy, the United Kingdom, France, and China all praised Sierra Leone’s national development plan for its alignment with global priorities in education, energy, mining, and digital transformation.
The same day, the delegation also witnessed the commissioning of the Leicester Peak Tourist Site a moment that underlined the government’s ambition to develop tourism as a serious economic pillar alongside agriculture and mining.
Dr. Kibwe, who oversees Sierra Leone and 21 other African countries from his position on the World Bank Board, commended President Bio’s reform agenda and said Sierra Leone’s macroeconomic direction has strengthened its position within the Bank’s constituency. He thanked the government and reaffirmed the Bank’s commitment to continued partnership across education, health, infrastructure, and more the language of continuity that development actors use when they intend to stay.
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For a country that has spent decades rebuilding after civil war, managing repeated external shocks, and fighting for institutional credibility on the international stage, a delegation of this size holding nearly 40% of the Bank’s voting power and willing to stand in the dust beside a half-built bridge in Kailahun carries a message that goes beyond diplomatic courtesy. It signals that Sierra Leone’s trajectory is being watched, and that the investment is considered worth defending.
