The key features of the New Business Registration Act 2007 and the General Law Act can be summarized as follows:

1. The initial 12 steps to registration have now been reduced to a three-step company registration process, thereby reducing the bureaucracy that had discouraged investors in the past;

2. The removal of the exchange control permission as a company registration requirement;

3. The removal of the mandatory requirement to engage a solicitor for the preparation of the Memorandum and Articles of Association (MoA). The investor or another experienced person, can now develop the MoA;

4. The abolishing of the need for an annual renewal of Business Licenses obtained from the Registrar General;

5. The elimination of the advance tax as a precondition for registering a business in Sierra Leone;

6. The general reduction of the cost and time to register a business.

Investment and Export Promotion Agency Act 2007

The Investment and Export Promotion Agency Act 2007 will now see the formulation of an eponymous agency, which will assume the role of the Sierra Leone Export Development and Investment Corporation (SLEDIC). This agency has now been abolished due to its failure to meet the needs of the investment and trade sectors.

This new Agency will be governed by a strong management Board, with the explicit function of promoting investment. The Agency’s organizational structure includes the appointment of two Deputy Executive Officers, responsible for export development and the other for investment promotion respectively.