By Claudia Redwood-Sawyerr
During a special press conference hosted by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education at Lacs Villa in Freetown, on 28th November 2025, the Financial Secretary, Matthew Dingie, announced that Sierra Leone’s life expectancy has risen from 52 to 62 years, a remarkable increase of 10 years.
He added that infant and maternal mortalities have also dropped significantly.
He made this disclosure while providing details of the 2026 National Budget which was earlier presented by the Minister of Finance, Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi in the well of Parliament.
Mr. Dingie described the improvement as huge, attributing the progress to sustained and strategic investments made by the Government of Sierra Leone and its development partners in strengthening the health sector.
He pledged that government will continue its intervention in the health sector in order to maintain the gains being made and also ensure that Sierra Leone has a healthy and productive population, one of the objectives of President Bio’s flagship Human Capital Development.
