Got African Ancestry? This CBI Program Offers Citizenship in 60 Days

The West African country of Sierra Leone has decided to throw its hat into the citizenship by investment (CBI) ring.

Long dominated by island nations in the Caribbean, CBI has gradually expanded to other countries, including Malta and Turkey. Although the details differ, the idea is to grant citizenship to someone who either invests in a local property or business, or donates money to the government or a sovereign fund.

Sierra Leone's new program has two pathways. Fast Track Naturalization gives citizenship within 90 days for any investment totaling $140,000, which includes all fees and ancillary charges. Heritage Naturalization gives anyone with African ancestry citizenship within 60 days in exchange for an investment of $100,000, fees included. Both approaches can include qualifying family members for an additional $10,000 per dependent, including parents.

Like most CBI programs, Sierra Leone's offering lets applicants bypass the naturalization and permanent residency process, which can take as much as a decade in that country.

One interesting perk of the new program is that successful applicants can join the country's “Go for Gold” club, which allows members to buy locally mined gold bullion at a 2% discount to market rates—up to 20 kilograms over five years.

Before you book the next flight to Freetown, the capital, you should know what the Sierra Leonean passport can and cannot do. It only grants visa-free travel to 66 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. And although Sierra Leone is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is supposed to grant free residency privileges in any member state, this is notoriously difficult to achieve in practice.

In the bigger scheme of things, the country's new program is most interesting for the way it illuminates the murky world of CBI itself. It was designed by Stephen Barnes, cofounder of the Hong Kong Visa Center. Barnes is deeply involved in international migration matters affecting Chinese and Hong Kongers. That suggests the Sierra Leone program is aimed primarily at East Asians looking for a second passport.

If that’s the case, it’s unlikely that many of these new Sierra Leoneans will actually choose to live in the country—at least under the Fast-Track version of the program. Similar programs in the Caribbean have become notorious for granting passports to expat Chinese who never set foot in their new country of citizenship, preferring instead to use the passport as a backup travel document.

The Heritage version, however, could be interesting to many African Americans. Fellow ECOWAS member state Ghana has long welcomed African Americans as permanent residents and given them expedited pathways to citizenship. Although there aren’t any official head counts, it’s likely that around 15,000 African Americans have moved to the country. In November last year, Ghana granted citizenship to 524 African Americans, the largest single group to be naturalized so far.

In addition to citizenship opportunities, Africa is also beginning to expand into residency opportunities. Namibia offers residency via investment in an as yet unbuilt residential enclave being developed on the Atlantic Coast. South Africa, Kenya, and Mauritius offer retirement visas to anyone who meets the relatively relaxed passive income requirements.

If you're interested in African opportunities, I'll be happy to speak to you. Not only do I offer personalized concierge consultations under my Global Citizen service... I'm also a citizen of South Africa and a resident of Cape Town who's traveled almost everywhere on the continent!