Finance Ministers and Governors of the Central Banks of West Africa member states of West Africa Monetary Zone, have converged in Freetown to attend statutory meetings hosted by the Bank of Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Finance.

The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, wrote in a statement expressing hope for his country.

“This is a symbol of confidence in a growing economy like Sierra Leone,” the President posted on a  social media platform.

The meeting is expected to commence Wednesday 5th February and such deliberations will end on Friday 14th February this year.

It will be climaxed with the launch of the instant payment switch to be done by His Excellency President. Dr Julius Maada Bio.

The payment, which was launched May 2023 by Bank of Sierra Leone, was dubbed as “Salone pement swich (SaPS).

It is a cash payments through banks’ Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale (PoS), and aims to provide a secure, safe and reliable financial transactions to customers of banks.

The new payment switch was expected to start operation by April 1st 2025, which was earlier announced as the deadline day to give way for all financial institutions and mobile money operators to have upgraded their systems.

Though there have yet to be comments made by private financial institutions on BSL’s shocking news on its starting the payment switch system, the reactions of private financial institutions might not be favourable given the abrupt change on the date to effect the new SaPS system.

However, BSL officials have hoped that the National Payment Switch is meant to promote a more cashless society where customers of banks will do most transactions into ATMs, PoS.