Trade Facilitation Support Program in Sierra Leone

Start & End Date: 2017-Ongoing

Country/Countries: Sierra Leone

Multilateral Institution(s) Involved: World Bank

Trade is at the heart of Sierra Leone’s ambitious national development plans. The country has developed a five-year trade facilitation action plan to guide its modernization efforts, with support from the World Bank Group’s Trade Facilitation Support Program.

Since 2017, the World Bank Group’s Trade Facilitation Support Program has supported Sierra Leone’s progress toward its trade facilitation goals in several ways: Helping the country comply with the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA); Improving the national trading environment; Increasing coordination among border agencies; Increasing the use of risk management in border clearance; and Integrating the border regulatory agencies into ASYCUDA World – the globally-recognized system for managing customs data.

The Freetown Port – which accounts for 80% of the country’s trade – has already benefited from early trade improvements. One of the recent upgrades led by the Customs Administration at the Freetown Port is the new computer system for customs data: ASYCUDA World. The new system allows for electronic processing of manifests and customs declarations at the seaport, airport, and certain land border offices. It provides online access to and interoperability with other government, trade facilitation agencies, and clearing agents. Traders and agencies can now lodge documents electronically for processing and approval and make payments on goods imported and exported out of the country. Sierra Leone is moving towards full compliance with the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA).