New toolkit, scorecard launched to get Sierra Leonean SMEs ready for investment

Access to finance is a major constraint for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sierra Leone, where many entrepreneurs have ambitious plans to expand, create jobs and build stronger local supply chains, but struggle to attract the capital needed to realise those plans. A new initiative is being launched to provide local businesses with practical advice and links to professional support, as they prepare to grow, acknowledging that a persuasive business idea is often not enough to secure investment.

Through its Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA), British International Investment (BII) has partnered with Invest Salone to develop a set of investment readiness tools specific to the Sierra Leone context. The package, backed by the UK Government and developed in partnership with local stakeholders, comprises the Sierra Leone Investment Toolkit, an Investment Readiness Scorecard and a Business Advisor Directory. Together, these tools are intended to help businesses evaluate their current investment readiness, pinpoint gaps and obtain targeted advisory support.

The heart of the package is the Investment Readiness Scorecard, a simple online self-assessment tool for entrepreneurs to map where they are on the investment journey. The scorecard helps companies to focus on the key areas that investors typically consider and to identify actions that users can take to strengthen their investment proposition. The Sierra Leone Investment Toolkit provides practical guidance to support the scorecard, covering areas such as corporate governance, business strategy, financial management and operations. It also deals with responsible business practices such as environmental and social management, legal compliance and other areas that are increasingly important to investors.

The Business Advisor Directory lists professional service providers working in Sierra Leone to allow businesses to act on the findings from the scorecard and toolkit. This directory aims to connect entrepreneurs with advisers who can help with specific needs from improving financial controls and governance arrangements, to developing investment-ready business plans and environmental management systems.

The resources were developed following direct engagement with Sierra Leonean SMEs through workshops and are informed by experiences from similar programmes across Africa, adapted to the specific conditions of the local business ecosystem. This local input influenced the structure of the materials and the practical focus of the guidance, emphasising actionable steps SMEs can take without heavy reliance on external resources.

For BII, this initiative is part of a broader strategy to boost engagement in frontier markets. The work corresponds to the organisation’s strategy for 2026-2031 to be more hands-on in markets where structural barriers make it more difficult for businesses to attract private capital, the organisation says. ARIA is a collaborative platform, co-funded by BII and development finance partners FMO and Proparco, launched with the aim of unlocking investment in frontier African markets by addressing specific barriers to investment and strengthening local ecosystems.

“These three resources help businesses better understand if they are ready for investment, identify which investors might be right for them, and showcase the local advisory ecosystem that can support them as they look to grow,” said Alex Kucharski, Director of Market Creation, BII Plus. “We are delighted to have been a close partner of Invest Salone through the ARIA platform to support Sierra Leone’s investment ecosystem. This is reflective of BII’s determination to play a more active role in frontier markets, helping to build the enabling conditions for businesses to attract investment.”

The initiative aims to help build the pipeline of investible businesses in Sierra Leone by empowering entrepreneurs to better understand investor expectations and establish foundational systems like clearer governance, stronger financial management and improved operational practices. The aim of strengthening this pipeline is not just to improve prospects of individual firms to access capital but also to underpin the broader development of the country’s private sector, stimulate job creation and build resilience within local supply chains.

The new resources are free for Sierra Leonean businesses and advisers, and stakeholders say the tools will continue to be refined based on feedback from users and partners as it comes in. The practical, locally adapted guidance is aimed at making the steps to investment readiness accessible for a wide range of SMEs across the country.