{"name":"Applied AI in Sierra Leone — the record","description":"Every announced initiative, deployment, published result and regulation of applied AI on the record for Sierra Leone, tagged by kind, industry, region and role, sourced and dated. A slice of the State of Applied AI record, maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI.","source":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/sierra-leone","partOf":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/evidence.json","attribution":"Industrial Research Unit, Straits Institute for Applied AI","updated":"2026-10-29","facet":{"kind":"country","name":"Sierra Leone","slug":"sierra-leone","iso2":"SL","region":"Sub-Saharan Africa"},"counts":{"entries":11,"deployments":5,"evidenceImpact":0,"evidenceAdoption":5,"regulation":1,"industries":3,"countries":1,"linked":11},"entries":[{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Sierra Leone","role":"Student","org":"Rising Academies","text":"Government schools in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda and Ghana are getting Rori, the AI maths tutor Rising Academies delivers over WhatsApp, chief technology officer Shabnam Aggarwal told Semafor. The adaptive tutoring service adjusts to each pupil, copes with weak connectivity and backs classrooms short of staff. In a 2023 Oxford and J-PAL study of 500 students over eight months, two 30-minute weekly sessions beat a control group by about a year's schooling.","date":"2026-10-28","source":"https://www.semafor.com/article/10/26/2026/across-africa-parents-embrace-ai-math-tutor"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Sierra Leone","org":"Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation","text":"The Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) has begun the National AI and Deepfake Awareness Campaign in Freetown, a two-phase drive across all 16 districts, alongside the Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation, the Ministry of Information and Civic Education and the World Bank's Sierra Leone Digital Transformation Project. Stage one runs workshops plus radio and TV shows, reaching people offline, so residents can check doctored media before passing clips on. Stage two will hand citizens checking tools.","date":"2026-09-16","source":"https://itweb.africa/article/sierra-leone-launches-ai-deepfake-campaign/JBwEr7n3lDZM6Db2"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Sierra Leone","org":"World Bank / Teachers in Sierra Leone","text":"World Development Report 2026 counts more than 500 Sierra Leone teachers on TheTeacher.AI, a WhatsApp-based AI chatbot for teachers covering lesson plans, subject content and differentiated teaching. Blinded evaluators judged TheTeacher.AI answers more helpful and relevant than standard web search, while each reply needs 98% less data than a typical web page, so the teaching bot stays affordable on mobile.","date":"2026-08-08","source":"https://sierraloaded.sl/news/world-bank-report-ai-sierra-leone-skill-gaps/"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Sierra Leone","org":"Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation (MoCTI)","text":"Sierra Leone's Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation and Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs will train 1,000 civil servants under a partnership agreement. The nine-month AI training for civil servants, via the Civil Service Training College, reaches 29 ministries, departments and agencies. Lessons span public sector AI skills, everyday digital tools, data management and cybersecurity under a wider digital transformation agenda.","date":"2026-06-26","source":"https://techafricanews.com/2026/06/26/sierra-leone-to-train-1000-civil-servants-in-digital-skills-ai-and-cybersecurity/"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Sierra Leone","org":"Sierra Leone Police","text":"A joint AI training for police pulled Sierra Leone Police staff nationwide together with Victory Teens Organisation instructors, covering cybercrime detection, digital probes and AI-driven policing tools. Deputy Inspector General Sahr Yomba Senesi wrapped things up, telling attendees to put lessons into action and pass them onward.","date":"2026-06-26","source":"https://sierraloaded.sl/news/sierra-leone-police-completes-ai-training/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"Sierra Leone","role":"Public health officials","org":"Ministry of Health, Sierra Leone","text":"Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health, working with the Gates Foundation and China CDC, has launched an AI mosquito surveillance device that snaps images, sorts mosquitoes by species and tallies numbers on its own, instantly. The three-year initiative's first stage kicks off 1 July 2026, arming officials with a real-time activity map to sharpen where vector control efforts land. This automated insect-borne disease monitoring approach could reshape how the country tracks malaria risk.","date":"2026-06-25","source":"https://theglobalpressnetwork.com/2026/06/25/sierra-leone-tests-ai-powered-smart-trap-to-track-malaria-mosquitoes/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Sierra Leone","org":"Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation (MoCTI)","text":"Sierra Leone AI strategy plans advance under the Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation with the World Bank Group, building the nation's first such blueprint. A draft AI Readiness Diagnostic Report measures preparedness. Media, civil society, government and business spent three days shaping this national artificial intelligence policy around homegrown culture.","date":"2026-05-20","source":"https://mocti.gov.sl/the-ministry-of-communication-technology-and-innovation-mocti-in-collaboration-with-the-world-bank-group-is-developing-sierra-leones-first-ever-national-ai-strategy/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Sierra Leone","role":"Lecturers","org":"Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM)","text":"IPAM, Sierra Leone's Institute of Public Administration and Management, built Academic Hub, an AI essay marking and online exam platform, to boost integrity and transparency in higher education. Trials with students went well, so officials plan wider rollout, including at the University of Sierra Leone. The AI-supported online examination system should improve grading accuracy and cut result delays.","date":"2026-04-23","source":"https://techreviewafrica.com/news/5093/sierra-leone-pilots-ai-driven-online-examination-system-to-enhance-higher-education"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Sierra Leone","role":"Education administrators","org":"Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE)","text":"Sierra Leone's Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education finished EDITH (Education Digital Information Tool Helper), an AI in education management platform turning days or weeks of administrative work into minutes. Development followed selection for the EdTech Hub Ministerial AI Challenge. The Ministry's IT department is set to take over the AI-assisted education administration tool permanently.","date":"2026-03","source":"https://thecalabashnewspaper.com/archives/61684"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Sierra Leone","org":"Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation (MoCTI)","text":"Sierra Leone's Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation delivered AI training for civil servants: over 50 senior leaders from ministries, departments and agencies. Qhala, the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre and the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation co-ran the Miatta Conference Hall leadership course on cybersecurity, AI and emerging technologies. Aim: civil service AI skills so policy and strategic choices serve the public interest.","date":"2026-03-03","source":"https://mocti.gov.sl/mocti-and-partners-train-civil-servants-on-cybersecurity-artificial-intelligence-and-emerging-technologies/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Sierra Leone","role":"Government education administrator","org":"Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Sierra Leone","text":"Sierra Leone's Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education runs an AI chatbot for education data on WhatsApp for its eight-person delivery team, via the EdTech Hub Ministry of Education AI Challenge. Embedded expert Mohamed Alpha created the retrieval-augmented generation tool, which supplies pupil and teacher numbers or exam results from checked files when staff compile budgets and reports. Endorsed by 17 district directors, this one-year-licence education data assistant gets near-daily use.","date":"2025-10","source":"https://edtechhub.org/case-study/the-graduate-who-brought-ai-to-sierra-leones-ministry-of-education/"}]}