Sierra Leone Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure Project (WB-P166601)

Countries
  • Sierra Leone
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • World Bank (WB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Dec 18, 2018
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Government of Sierra Leone
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 12.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 12.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ WB website

Updated in EWS Jan 16, 2019

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to bank documents, the objective of the project is to increase the interoperability of digital payments and access to financial services. 

The design of the project aims to support the implementation of a national switch, as well as support for activities that will drive usage of the payments infrastructure. The proposed project is a US$10 million IPF comprised of three components:

  1. Enhancing Interoperability of Digital Payments ($6.5M) finances the hardware, software, and consulting services required to successfully implement a national switch:
  2. Usage and Viability of Financial Infrastructure ($2.95M):supports the increased usage of the payments infrastructure through financing access points for the national switch (e.g., POS terminals, electronic government payments). The component has a special emphasis on increasing the usage in rural areas and will support MFI linkages with the payments infrastructure through financing core banking applications and telecommunication systems. The component also supports other items that will facilitate the usage and viability of the national switch, including regulatory reforms and financial awareness efforts to support the uptake of electronic payments and DFS.
  3. Project Implementation Support ($0.55M): finances a project coordinator and oversight mechanisms for the project to ensure private sector stakeholder involvement.
Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

World Bank:
Rinku Chandra, Nicholas Timothy Smith
Lead Financial Sector Specialist

Borrower:
Republic of Sierra Leone

Implementing Agency:
Bank of Sierra Leone
Dr. Ibrahim Stevens
Deputy Governor
info@bsl.gov.sl 

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF WORLD BANK

The World Bank Inspection Panel is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by a World Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Inspection Panel, they may investigate to assess whether the World Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can contact the Inspection Panel or submit a complaint by emailing ipanel@worldbank.org. You can learn more about the Inspection Panel and how to file a complaint at: http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/Home.aspx.

How it works

How it works