Transport in Sierra Leone

The Ministry of Transport and Aviation oversees road, marine and air transport. The Sierra Leone Public Transport Authority, established under the Public Transport Authority Act 2023, guides bus networks, corridors, schedules, provider standards and vehicle standards. The Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority handles driving licences, vehicle registration, roadworthiness checks, fees and road safety. The Sierra Leone Roads Authority manages national roads and bridges, while Sierra Leone Police Traffic enforces traffic rules. Freetown City Council handles local traffic and parking measures. Sierra Leone has about 13,230 kilometres of roads in the national inventory. This includes approximately 4,070 kilometres of trunk roads, 1,904 kilometres of district roads, 3,104 kilometres of urban roads and 4,152 kilometres of feeder and local roads. About 953 kilometres of national roads are paved. Rain, flooding, landslides, bridge problems and ferry bottlenecks can substantially change travel times. Only about one third of the population has access to an all-season road. The 2024–2029 CAMIP programme includes climate-resilient roads and bridges in Bo, Moyamba, Tonkolili and Karene. Freetown has a mixed formal and informal public transport system. Waka Fine and MTCL provide formal bus services. The Waka Fine pilot uses 50 buses on two corridors with 77 stops. Reported daily Waka Fine passenger figures differ between sources, so they should not be treated as a single settled statistic. Poda poda are usually 12- to 15-seat minibuses. Shared saloon taxis, keke three-wheel taxis and okada motorcycle taxis remain central for local travel. Services commonly use street stops, markets, bus terminals and designated corridors rather than one unified timetable. Fares depend on distance and vehicle type and may be regulated or negotiated. A 2025 government announcement reported fuel-linked reductions of NLe2 for inner-city services, NLe10 for provincial services, NLe2 for ferries and NLe10 for heavy vehicles. Students, military personnel and uniformed police were exempted from fares under that announcement. Current fares should be confirmed locally because a consolidated nationwide fare table is not reliably available. Intercity travel mainly uses poda poda, shared taxis, buses and private cars. National schedules and fares are not consistently published, and road and weather conditions can make journey times unpredictable. Freetown International Airport is at Lungi. Travelers usually reach it from Freetown by water taxi, a government ferry from Kissy or Government Wharf, or other arranged boat services. A water-taxi crossing takes about 30 minutes under normal conditions. Departures are linked to flight schedules, but weather and service conditions can change ferry timing. The airport publishes monthly flight and boat schedules. Ferries and boats also remain relevant for river, estuary and island crossings where bridges are unavailable or still under construction. Sierra Leone has no regular public passenger railway. The historic national network ended in the mid-1970s, and the Pepel–Tonkolili rail corridor is oriented toward mining and iron-ore transport rather than everyday passenger travel. The Railway Development and Regulatory Authority Act 2024 provides a development and regulatory framework for rail and cable-car projects, but it has not created a currently usable rail alternative for daily mobility. A driver needs a valid licence for the relevant vehicle class. A vehicle must be registered, licensed, insured and roadworthy. Commercial vehicles have additional fitness, permit and axle-load requirements. Motorcycle riders must wear helmets. Commercial okada services are restricted in parts of Freetown's central business district and on 36 designated corridors, with possible licence suspension or fines for violations. Exact speed, priority and parking requirements should be checked against current traffic regulations and local enforcement practice. Walking accounts for about half of daily trips in Freetown, according to Freetown City Council, but sidewalks are often missing, blocked or unsafe. The Integrated Resilient Urban Mobility Project includes about 8.2 kilometres of sidewalks, four pedestrian overpasses, crossings, signals and street lighting. Cycling remains fragmented and emerging. There is no established nationwide cycling infrastructure or regular service network, while Freetown has longer-term plans for cycle lanes and bike sharing. Older vehicles, congestion and weak traffic flow contribute to local transport emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency addresses vehicle-emission checks, import standards and fuel-quality monitoring. Formal bus services can reduce the number of vehicles needed for the same passenger volume and may lower greenhouse-gas emissions. Sierra Leone's Gender-Sensitive National E-Mobility Strategy 2024–2035 and electric-vehicle and charging pilots indicate a developing low-emission transport policy, but current everyday travel still depends mainly on road vehicles, walking and water crossings.