Central to the objectives of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2017–2020 for Sierra Leone is ensuring that the regulator, the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL), is responsive to emerging opportunities in new areas such as digital financial inclusion. Market-level data are vital to understanding a country’s market for digital financial services (DFS), level of development and trends. While the recently launched Global Findex database tracks useful national-level indicators, the availability of high-quality, market-level data on the Sierra Leonean DFS market has been limited to date.

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) developed the Annual Provider Survey (APS) to provide industry participants with a comprehensive view of the state of the DFS market in the country. Encompassing customer adoption, usage and trends of DFS, the APS aims to equip regulatory bodies with the know-how to better monitor, manage and guide the various DFS providers in the country, while simultaneously sharing valuable insights with the DFS providers regarding the performance of their products and services relative to the market.