Banks in Sierra Leone are declining transactions due to a mismatch in the Sierra Leone currency code after plans to change this code were delayed from September 2022 to March 2023. However, card networks such as Visa and Mastercard have followed the original cut-over period and will no longer support payments made in the legacy currency, with currency code SLL. All payments via the card networks must be presented in SLE, regardless of the extension on the transition period.

As a result of this change, transactions attempted in SLL will fail as of Oct 1st. These charges should be resubmitted using the new SLE currency in order to be successful.

Please note that exchange rates on these currencies are significantly different, with SLE being approximately 1000:1 against SLL. You can find the latest, precise exchange rate for SLE on our currency conversion calculator: https://dashboard.stripe.com/currency_conversion