Sources: central bank and provider disclosures, 2024–2025.
How Sierra Leone pays
Sierra Leone is a cash-heavy market where mobile money is how most people pay digitally. Orange Money and Africell Money are the main wallets, used for transfers, bills and airtime, and card ownership is concentrated among banked, urban buyers. The leone was redenominated in 2022, so prices now appear in the new leone (SLE).
A sizable diaspora in the UK, the US and elsewhere pays for goods and services at home with cards issued abroad. For a merchant, the value is a clear starting point: international cards and express wallets behind one integration, 3DS on card-not-present payments, and retries across acquirers, with leone pricing and FX handled for you.
Why merchants run on us here
Cards and wallets live today
International card acquiring and the express wallets, available now.
How Sierra Leone pays
Orange Money and Africell Money carry most digital payments, so cards reach the banked segment.
Diaspora-ready
Sierra Leoneans abroad pay with foreign-issued cards, so routing by card origin matters.
Leone pricing and FX
Price in SLE and settle in your base currency, with FX handled for you.
Payment methods
Cards
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Discover
Diners Club
JCB
UnionPayBuy Now, Pay Later
Sandbox BNPLDigital wallets
PayPalExpress checkout
Apple Pay
Google PayGateways
Sandbox BNPLPayPal
Airwallex
Stripe
Adyen
Unlimit
Worldpay
Checkout.com
Authorize.net
MPGS
Cybersource
Sandbox GatewayAirwallex (Enterprise)
Braintree
CommerceHub
Fiserve
NMI
Nuvei
OrbitalBuilt for enterprise
Everything it takes to run payments in Sierra Leone
Local payment methods are only half the job. We carry the operational weight — acquiring, settlement, FX, licensing and reconciliation — so you can treat Sierra Leone like any other market in your stack.
One integration, growing local coverage
Connect once for what's live in Sierra Leone today — including international card acquiring — and add local wallets and bank rails through the same integration as we bring them online.
Local acquiring, higher approvals
We route to local acquirers and retry failed payments across alternate rails, so domestic cards and wallets authorize at local rates instead of being declined as cross-border traffic.
Settlement, FX & repatriation
Collect in the Sierra Leonean leone (SLE) and settle in your base currency. We handle the FX conversion and the local rules for moving funds out of the country — the part most global merchants underestimate.
Licensing handled locally
We're establishing locally licensed partners so you can process in-country as we expand local coverage — without standing up your own entity or chasing a license.
Payouts & reconciliation
Pay out to sellers and process refunds on the same rails you collect on, and reconcile every flow — pay-in, payout, refund — in one ledger, in local or base currency.
Fraud, disputes & compliance
Real-time screening, chargeback and dispute handling, and KYC/AML that matches local regulator expectations — built in, not bolted on.
Ready to launch in Sierra Leone?
Talk to our payments team about going live in Sierra Leone — coverage, local acquiring, settlement and timelines for your business.