The opportunity Cassava is Sierra Leone's second staple after rice and contributes 57.4 percent of agricultural GDP, with 2.6 million tonnes produced on 155,706 hectares on a largely smallholder basis. Yields sit at around 15 tonnes per hectare against a potential of 60 — the widest productivity gap of any crop in the portfolio, and the reason a comparatively small investment carries the strongest return ratio of the four cases. The export story is already happening; it is simply happening informally. Formal garri exports grew from 1.6 to 42 tonnes between 2021 and 2025, while informal cross-border trade to Guinea and Liberia runs at an estimated 600 tonnes a week. The gap between those two figures is the opportunity. Capturing that trade in formal, traceable channels raises smallholder prices, generates recorded export earnings, and opens the way to higher-value products — high quality cassava flour and industrial starch for regional and international markets. Traceability is why this is the one Sierra Leonean case carrying the Digital impact tag.

Key bottlenecks 

• Yield gains below expectations, cassava mosaic disease, and climate variability
• Unreliable fresh cassava supply, low ramp-up throughput, and thin processing margins • Road disruption in the rainy season and coordination across many smallholders • Limited access to finance and weak managerial capacity

What the investment delivers

• Cassava production clusters: 15 clusters across 25,000 hectares with 250 Farmer Field Schools. USD 24.0 million, private.
• HQCF and starch processing: 3 processing units and 3 small-capacity units. USD 6.2 million, private.
• Collection and logistics network: 15 collection and aggregation networks and 55 transport-support packages. USD 5.7 million, PPP.
• Financing and capacity building: 5 financing cycles and windows. USD 5.6 million, PPP.

The target Formalise the export channel and launch trade in high quality cassava flour and starch for regional and international markets.