By Sallieu S. Kanu
Freetown, May 5, 2026: Sierra Leone’s Minister of Communication, Technology and Innovation, Salima Monorma Bah, has disclosed that despite $400 million invested in telecom infrastructure, the country continues to face a 60% usage gap, highlighting the scale of its digital divide.
Speaking at the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Communications’ annual stakeholder meeting at the Atlantic Hotel in Freetown, Bah urged greater industry accountability and infrastructure sharing to reduce operating costs and improve affordability. She emphasized that these reforms are essential to achieving universal connectivity.
Bah noted that the national fiber backbone has been expanded to 14 of Sierra Leone’s 16 districts, yet millions remain offline. According to DataReportal, by October 2025 only 1.85 million people were Internet users out of a population of 8.86 million, leaving 79.2% of the population disconnected.
She revealed that with reforms and a $15 million investment for the upcoming landing of a second subsea cable, Sierra Leone is poised to transform its digital landscape into a driver of education, healthcare, and economic growth.
The meeting brought together parliamentary bodies, NatCA, Sierratel, SALPOST, Felei Tech City project representatives, mobile operators, and civil society leaders, who discussed strategies to close the usage gap and strengthen accountability in the sector.
Sierra Leone has also partnered with Liberia to roll out the ECOWAS free roaming initiative, aimed at reducing cross-border mobile costs, while satellite Internet service Starlink launched in the country in 2024 to expand access to underserved communities.
Despite these efforts, Bah stressed that affordability and accountability remain the biggest hurdles. “We must fix the system to ensure that connectivity is not a privilege but a right for all Sierra Leoneans,” she said.