Sierra Leone Moves to Close Seven-Year Legal Gap Threatening Digital Commerce Growth

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Sierra Leone has begun efforts to close a seven-year-old regulatory gap that has left the country’s rapidly expanding digital commerce sector without the full legal and institutional mechanisms needed to protect businesses, consumers and investors.

Government officials, financial institutions, telecommunications companies, mobile money operators, private-sector representatives, development partners and civil society organisations met in Freetown on July 27 and 28 for a public-private dialogue focused on the implementation of Sierra Leone’s electronic transactions framework.

The initiative, led by the Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation (MoCTI) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), with support from the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), is seeking to translate legislation passed years ago into functioning regulations and enforcement mechanisms.

The discussions come as digital payments and mobile money become increasingly important to commerce across Africa, where mobile money platforms and country-specific digital wallets reportedly process hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

But while digital transactions are growing, legal and regulatory systems in many African countries have struggled to keep pace.

For Sierra Leone, the problem is particularly significant.

The country’s Electronic Transactions Act, passed in January 2019, was intended to provide legal recognition for electronic commerce and establish protections for participants in the digital economy.

Yet key elements needed to make the law operational have remained underdeveloped.

A law without the machinery to enforce it

The Electronic Transactions Act recognises electronic signatures and electronic messages and provides protections for consumers engaging in electronic transactions.

However, questions remain over the institutional arrangements required to enforce the legislation.

Among the issues identified are the absence of a clearly operational system for issuing digital certificates, limited guidance on the treatment and authentication of electronic evidence in court, inadequate dispute-resolution mechanisms and uncertainty over enforcement and penalties.

That uncertainty can have practical consequences.

Mobile money users can face disputes over failed or reversed transactions. Merchants can lose funds through fraud. Consumers may pay for goods or services that are never delivered. Digital entrepreneurs can enter into electronic agreements without knowing with certainty how those agreements will be enforced when disputes arise.

For businesses seeking to expand their operations online, the absence of predictable regulatory procedures can also increase risk and undermine investor confidence.

Hon. Alpha Ibrahim Sesay, Minister of Trade and Industry, said strengthening trust in electronic transactions would be critical to the country’s economic ambitions.

“A trusted e-transactions ecosystem is essential for expanding trade, improving the ease of doing business, and unlocking Sierra Leone’s digital economy,”he said.

Asking the difficult questions

The two-day dialogue brought the concerns of users and businesses into the regulatory discussion.

Participants examined questions that increasingly arise as commerce moves from cash and physical transactions to mobile phones and digital platforms.

Who should issue digital certificates? What standards should businesses use to demonstrate that an electronic transaction is authentic? Which institution should investigate complaints? How quickly should disputes be resolved? What happens when digital fraud occurs? Which agency should prosecute offenders? And how should courts assess electronic evidence when a dispute reaches litigation?

For mobile money operators and financial institutions, these are not theoretical questions.

They can involve significant financial losses and lengthy disputes.

For small businesses and women traders using digital payments to reach customers beyond their immediate communities, the stakes can be even higher.

The dialogue therefore sought to ensure that proposed regulations are tested against the realities faced by people operating within Sierra Leone’s emerging digital economy.

From policy to implementation

Mr James Kanja Cobba, Director of Policy, Planning and Research at MoCTI, presented an overview of Sierra Leone’s digital transformation landscape.

Prof. Michael Geist, a digital trade expert from the ITC, examined experiences from countries that have moved from electronic transaction legislation to functioning regulatory frameworks, highlighting approaches that have succeeded as well as those that have failed.

Terfa Ashwe, an ITC expert in trade and investment law and policy, challenged participants to consider how proposed measures would work in real-world situations.

The discussions included scenarios involving mobile money fraud, online marketplaces, women entrepreneurs, youth-led technology businesses and digital service providers.

The intention is to move beyond legislation on paper and establish practical mechanisms capable of resolving disputes and providing confidence to businesses and consumers.

An African problem with a Sierra Leonean test case

Sierra Leone’s challenge is part of a broader continental pattern.

Several African countries have enacted legislation governing electronic transactions, including Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana.

Yet the passage of legislation has not always been matched by the institutional capacity, regulations and enforcement systems required to make those laws effective.

For countries seeking to attract fintech investment and expand digital trade, the distinction is crucial.

A law may recognise electronic transactions, but investors and businesses also need to know what happens when something goes wrong.

That is where implementation becomes critical.

Sierra Leone’s current process could therefore become more than a domestic regulatory exercise. If successfully implemented, it could offer lessons to other African countries confronting similar gaps between legislation and enforcement.

What comes next

The government is expected to develop specific regulatory requirements addressing the issuance of digital certificates, transaction integrity, dispute resolution and the investigation and prosecution of digital fraud.

The process is also expected to produce a gap-analysis report containing model provisions informed by international standards, a policy memorandum focused on digital payments adoption, and strategic recommendations with sequenced timelines for implementation.

The work forms part of the READY Salone project, which runs through 2028 and brings together MoCTI, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and MTI in collaboration with the International Trade Centre.

For Sierra Leone’s growing community of fintech companies, merchants, consumers and digital entrepreneurs, the outcome could have consequences well beyond government policy documents.

A functional framework could provide greater certainty for businesses, stronger protections for consumers and a clearer pathway for resolving digital disputes.

For investors, it could signal whether Sierra Leone is prepared to build the regulatory certainty necessary for a competitive digital economy.

And for ordinary citizens increasingly relying on mobile phones to send money, pay bills, purchase goods and conduct business, it could answer a basic but increasingly important question: when a digital transaction goes wrong, who protects you?

Seven years after Sierra Leone’s Electronic Transactions Act came into force, the government is now attempting to provide that answer.

The success of the process will ultimately depend not on the existence of another policy document, but on whether the rules are implemented, institutions are empowered and citizens can actually use the protections the law promises.