Business & Markets · Lending interest rate · Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone’s lending interest rate rose to 21.4% in 2025.
21.4%
2025
Up 0.86 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
21.4%
What it is. The lending interest rate is the price banks charge the private sector for short and medium-term loans, such as working capital for a shop or finance for equipment. It is an average across many loans, so a borrower with strong collateral can pay less and a riskier one more. Fees and loans from lenders outside the banking system sit outside it.
Neither way is good in itself. A higher rate pays lenders for risk and inflation and rewards savers, while a lower rate makes credit cheaper for firms and households. The latest figure is 21.4% in January 2025, up from 20.6% a year earlier, a rise of 0.86 percentage points. Since 2016 the lowest reading was 15.7% in January 2017. The current 21.4% is also the highest in that span, so the rate sits at the top of its range.
Why it matters. A business borrowing from a Sierra Leonean bank at around 21.4% needs its investment to earn more than that just to cover the interest. Households taking loans face the same cost, which makes large purchases harder to finance. For lenders the high rate brings more income per loan, and the pressure falls on borrowers to repay.
| Period | Lending interest rate · Sierra Leone |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 16.2% |
| 2017 | 15.7% |
| 2018 | 16% |
| 2019 | 18% |
| 2020 | 17.9% |
| 2021 | 18.9% |
| 2022 | 19.3% |
| 2023 | 19.6% |
| 2024 | 20.6% |
| 2025 | 21.4% |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Lending interest rate, Sierra Leone, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/business/lending-rate/sierra-leone
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
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Working this out from the published figures…
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Methodology
Bank rate that usually meets the short- and medium-term financing needs of the private sector. Unit: %.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series FR.INR.LEND), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.