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Sierra Leone: 90-Day Citizenship Route Revealed · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the Sierra Leone program has kind of been in testing phase, looking for product market fit for the last six months.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not sufficient to impose a particular set of program parameters onto a market.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to kind of understand what the market is looking for in the numbers.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you that this week we will naturalize the second batch of 10 families.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of overall applicants, I'd say we've had double the number of those applicants, expressions of interest.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And of those others, we've probably five of them.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We screened out because they just weren't fit for the program.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the others are still sort of waiting in the pipeline.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing that we did was took to market the story that you could acquire permanent residency in exchange for a gold investment.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now that was a deliberate ploy on our part because we couldn't take a story about special naturalization to market when we didn't know what the program parameters were going to look like.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we entered the market with a PR story and then ultimately realized what the final parameters of the special naturalization program should include.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not so much a case of what's the return on investment in gold.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had a couple of applicants for PR that have invested in gold, but it was really all about what kind of program features and benefits should a special naturalization program, such as we've got in Sierra Leone, anticipate for the purposes of ensuring that the program that was designed or was being set up to design for the attraction of direct foreign investment.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: In Sierra Leone, the government determined that ensuring the special naturalization program was fit for purpose.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: They needed to give confidence to the new citizens that it was a safe place to invest.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: We are committed to the new features and benefits and the specifications of the program, up to 4,000 families in five years.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my sense that the government will change the investment parameters anytime soon.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly not within that first 4,000 cohort.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the problem about Africa is that people need to upgrade their mental models.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: They think Africa and they think, you know, Ebola, they think uh corruption, they think tragedy, they think starving children.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: You only have to sort of, you know, wander the streets of Kigali now and look up, and you can see, you know, Kigali looks like Dubai did 15 years ago.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So Africa's on the march.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: The whole idea of the program is to avail a safe way to invest in the Africa story.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sierra Leone's an ex-British colony, it's got all the institutions of an ex-British colony, part of the Commonwealth, non-CRS, it's um free and open banking system, relatively straightforward and easy to access all the decision makers in government and uh in banking circles, and also entrepreneurs that are active and successful in the economy.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And a fundamental part of the program design was us leading delegations two or three times a year for all intending citizens, new citizens, and other people that are really looking for somewhere to invest safely in Africa through Sierra Leone to come and actually meet the people so they can get the confidence that they need to be able to execute on their foreign direct investment intentions.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sierra Leone will never introduce a citizenship by investment program because the whole citizenship by investment legislation, the instruments that give rise to citizenship is increasingly coming under attack.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: However, it is possible under existing Sierra Leone immigration law and amendments to the Citizenship Act in process to enable foreign nationals to naturalize as Sierra Leonean citizens in 90 days on the basis that all of the requirements for special naturalization are met, which are straightforward, all told, you've got to be clean, you've got to have the requisite sort of you know high net worth individual financial background, and you've got to be manifestly attractive to the country in terms of you know what your CV looks like and what you've accomplished previously.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So there is no need for a citizenship by investment programme per se in Sierra Leone, the special naturalization instrument, which is presently part of the presidential prerogative under section 27A of the Citizenship Act, that's going to get enshrined in amendments to the Citizenship Act with some long overdue updates to the Citizenship Act, in addition to the adjustments to accommodate the special naturalisation instrument that we brought to market for them.