Shaping Sierra Leone’s National Drone Ecosystem

As the home of West Africa’s first National Drone Corridor, Sierra Leone has already demonstrated a commitment to exploring how drones can support development and public service delivery. Building on this momentum, the country is now taking a more systematic approach to strengthening its drone ecosystem through stakeholder mapping, ecosystem assessment, use-case prioritization, and policy development.

The Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation (MoCTI) has initiated a national effort to assess and strengthen Sierra Leone’s readiness to scale drone solutions.

It is our honour to share that, following a joint submission with WeRobotics and Nepal Flying Labs, Sierra Leone Flying Labs was awarded the opportunity to lead this work along with an expert policy consulting partner to assist with the development of the National Drone Policy.

Supported by the World Bank, the project was launched in November 2025 and will conclude in May 2026. Sierra Leone Flying Labs serves as the lead partner, working closely with WeRobotics and Nepal Flying Labs as implementing partners.

Our Progress to Date

The project team has conducted extensive stakeholder consultations across government institutions, the private sector, academia, NGOs, and the wider drone ecosystem. These engagements have been carried out through surveys, interviews, and workshops. The information gathered is being consolidated and analyzed to identify current drone applications, sectoral needs, operational challenges, and opportunities for drone deployment in Sierra Leone for operationalization. This includes prioritizing potential drone use cases based on the needs assessment, their operational and regulatory feasibility, and their alignment with the Government of Sierra Leone’s Big Five Game Changers (2024–2030).

A preliminary set of potential drone use cases has been identified based on stakeholder inputs and emerging sector needs. This process is guiding the prioritization of high-impact and implementable use cases. 

In parallel, a review of relevant national policies, legislation, sector strategies, and donor-supported programs has been undertaken. This has helped identify existing linkages and alignment opportunities to ensure coherence between the proposed drone framework and national development priorities, as well as ongoing initiatives to develop a National Drone Policy and Strategy to guide the use of drones across identified priority use cases in Sierra Leone as a blueprint for their use in other sectors. 

What’s Next

The development of the draft National Drone Policy and Strategy is currently underway. The framework continues to be informed by stakeholder consultations, needs assessment findings, and policy reviews. It is being structured to provide a clear national roadmap for the safe, effective, and scalable deployment of drones across priority sectors for wider adoption and governance.

Locally Led, Globally Supported

This project reflects the power of locally led, globally supported collaboration.

Sierra Leone Flying Labs brings strong local expertise and stakeholder relationships, while local policy experts bring official language and writing to the table. Nepal Flying Labs contributes experience in ecosystem assessment and survey design, and WeRobotics provides strategic guidance and coordination support based on its global experience.

As the project continues, we will share updates from key engagements, insights from stakeholder consultations, and milestones achieved throughout the process.

We invite stakeholders and partners to follow this journey as we work toward building a safe, inclusive, and impactful drone ecosystem in Sierra Leone.