SLDIC London 2026 Draws 400 Diaspora Delegates to the InterContinental Hotel Park Lane

The Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference marks its first international expansion beyond the United States and proves the diaspora is done waiting.

LONDON, United Kingdom — June 29, 2026 

The fourth annual Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference “SLDIC London 2026” concluded on Saturday at the InterContinental Hotel Park Lane, having sold out its two-day programme and drawn in more than 400 diaspora delegates, investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from across the United Kingdom and beyond.

The conference, held on June 19 and 20, marked SLDIC’s first international expansion beyond the United States and its most ambitious edition to date, bringing the Sierra Leonean diaspora in Europe into the structured investment conversation for the first time on this scale.

Under the theme “From Capital to Catalyst,” the event brought together the Vice President of Sierra Leone, cabinet ministers, senior government officials, diaspora investors, fund managers, fintech entrepreneurs, and business founders for two days of substantive panel sessions, keynote addresses, fireside chats, and a live pitch competition.

Day 1 – Opening Address by Vickie Remoe on What the Diaspora Does (& Doesn’t) Need

Vickie Remoe, Founder & Chair of the Sierra Leone Diaspora Conference, setting the tone for the two-day event in London

In a striking opening address that set the tone for the entire conference, SLDIC Founder and Chair Vickie Remoe spoke with rare honesty about the diaspora’s complicated relationship with home, validating the hesitation that many Sierra Leoneans feel about investing back home while simultaneously refusing to let the room settle for it.

Vickie Remoe told the audience that there are real reasons why she does not currently live in Sierra Leone. “There are certain basic comforts that I need to thrive that are not there,” she said. “When I do business in Sierra Leone, I often feel like I have to accept less for what I do.”

But she was equally direct about what that means. “I refuse to be a bystander,” she told the room. “When I graduated from college, I made a promise to myself to be part of building the kind of Sierra Leone that I would want to live in.”

Her central argument was structural: that the diaspora does not need perfect conditions to begin investing, but rather needs the right tools. “The perfect conditions that we are all waiting for: 24-hour electricity, reliable water, world-class hospitals are not going to happen if we don’t do the work to build right now. We have to build it through our imperfections.”

She set out SLDIC’s highest ambition for the year: the creation of a Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Fund and a Diaspora Bond. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “The Burkinabe have done it. The Nigerians have done it. The Ethiopians have done it. What we lack are the transparent, secure, structured financial instruments that allow us to pool our resources safely and at scale.”

Government Keynote: The Highest Level of Government Participation in SLDIC History

Far right: Umaru Napoleon Koroma, Deputy Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources | Madam Nabeela Tunis, Minister of Tourism & Cultural Affairs | Hon. Dr. Turad Senesie, Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning | Mohamed Sowe, CEO, Pee Cee Agriculture

The Government Plenary Session on Day 1 featured the highest-level Sierra Leonean government delegation in the conference’s four-year history, including cabinet ministers from the Ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry, Lands, Tourism, and Mines, alongside the Executive Director of the National Investment Board and the Sierra Leone High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

TAF Africa Global: Bringing Sierra Leone’s Housing Revolution to London

Among the most anticipated presentations of Day 1 was the private sector keynote by Mustapha Njie, CEO and MD of TAF Africa Global, the conference’s Global Visionary Headline Sponsor. Njie presented the TAF Salone Micro City: a 5,000-home development located at John Obey on the Peninsula Road in Sierra Leone’s Western Rural District, launched in 2023 under a Joint Venture Agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone.

Mustapha Njie, CEO of TAF Africa Global and SLDIC 2026 Global Visionary Headline Sponsor, presenting the TAF Salone Micro City

TAF Africa Global, which has operated across 10 African countries for over 50 years, is offering diaspora buyers 4-year interest-free payment plans on homes within the development: a fully master-planned, gated community with infrastructure already in place and residents already living there. “We have changed the story of property purchase and the bad experiences faced by the diaspora,” Njie told the conference. “We have changed the real estate landscape of Sierra Leone.”

The presentation offered diaspora buyers a rare opportunity to engage directly with a developer whose track record spans more than a million homes across Africa and whose Sierra Leone development represents one of the most significant private sector investments in the country’s recent history.

Day 2 — Vice Presidential Keynote: Sierra Leone’s Highest Office Addresses the Diaspora

H.E. Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, delivering the keynote address on Day 2 of SLDIC London

The second day of the conference opened with the arrival of H.E. Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, who delivered the conference’s headline keynote address. His presence as well as that of the broader government delegation was noted by Remoe as a direct reflection of a new quality of leadership engagement with the diaspora.

“VP Jalloh represents a new kind of leadership in Sierra Leone,” Remoe said in her opening address. “A leadership that understands that there are lessons to be learned even from the loudest critics.”

In his keynote,  the Vice President acknowledged the diaspora’s decades of commitment to Sierra Leone while challenging the room to move beyond it. He pointed directly to the Burkina Faso Patriotic Bond, which closed its first tranche just weeks before the conference – raising 151 billion CFA francs against a target of 125 billion through a partnership with Vista Bank – as a model Sierra Leone can and must follow.

The Vice President was direct about the government’s role, and its limits. “We do not stand before you claiming that every challenge has been solved,” he told the room. “What we do say is that we understand the challenges, we are addressing them, and the foundations for growth, investment, and partnership are being strengthened deliberately not by accident.”

He closed with an image that captured the conference’s central ambition: “Somewhere in Sierra Leone today, a child is walking to school with a backpack paid for by a remittance from London. One day, that same child may grow up to work in a business financed by a diaspora investment fund. That is the journey we are discussing. That is the transformation we seek.”

“The generation before us used remittances to help Sierra Leone endure. Our generation has an opportunity to move beyond remittances to investment. And the generation that follows us should inherit a nation that is not merely sustained by its diaspora, but increasingly financed, built and owned by its diaspora.”

— H.E. Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

Vickie Remoe on the Data Behind the Movement

Vickie Remoe welcoming delegates to the second day of SLDIC London – the day the diaspora got down to business

Opening Day 2, Remoe presented findings from the SL Diaspora Fund Survey 2026, a study of over 400 diaspora professionals which revealed the depth of diaspora intent and the structural gap standing between that intent and action. The data showed that 58% of diaspora respondents cited social impact as their primary motivation for sending money home, while 33% identified trust as the single biggest barrier to investing.

“The problem isn’t a lack of patriotism,” Remoe told the room. “It’s a lack of structure. The policymakers and ecosystem experts sitting in this room are actively designing the de-risking mechanisms, blended finance models, and independent management frameworks to bridge this trust gap once and for all.”

She announced that the London conference was the first phase of a three-city 2026 programme, with the Maryland edition to follow in August and the Freetown homecoming finale in December, where the diaspora investment fund blueprint developed in London would be taken directly to the ground for site visits and pipeline investment identification.

King Jimmy Landing: Eastern Spring Water Takes Home the Prize

Alysious Konteh, founder of Eastern Spring Water and the winner of the King Jimmy Landing Pitch Competition at SLDIC London 2026 

The conference’s signature live pitch competition – the King Jimmy Landing Pitch Fest – saw seven Sierra Leonean founders take the stage to compete for a prize fund of up to $5,000, judged by a panel of experienced investors and entrepreneurs.

The winner of the $5,000 prize was Alysious Konteh, founder of Eastern Spring Water, whose pitch convinced the judges that his venture offered a credible, scalable answer to Sierra Leone’s clean water access challenge.

Championed by the planning committee of the SLDIC, the King Jimmy Landing Pitch Fest is a platform to encourage entrepreneurs and innovators to build solutions that benefit Sierra Leoneans and the world.

Amieda Koroma pitching her project “CareBridge” to the judges in the King Jimmy Landing Pitch Competition

Jacinta Paul, founder of Salone Trails & Tales, competing in the King Jimmy Landing pitch competition

About the Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference

SLDIC is an annual international conference, founded in 2023 by Vickie Remoe to move the Sierra Leonean diaspora from being passive remittance senders to becoming active equity investors, co-creators, and strategic development partners. The 2026 London edition was presented by TAF Africa Global in partnership with the Office of the Vice President, the National Investment Board of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Pee Cee & Sons and the British High Commission Sierra Leone.

Media Contact

Magnifique Muhoza

Communications & Planning Committee Co-Chair, SLDIC 2026

magnifique@vrcmarketing.com 

www.makesierraleonefamous.com