DCBF presents · The annual convening

The Capital &
Business Lab 2026

How to do business in Sierra Leone.

Investment forums tell you why to invest in Sierra Leone. The Capital & Business Lab is what happens after that decision — the operational work of making capital survive on the ground.

Sat 12 December 2026 10:00am doors Lagoonda Resort, Aberdeen beachfront, Freetown Half-day — ends early afternoon 120 curated seats Keynote — Sidi Saccoh

Join the interest list or call / WhatsApp +232 78 798 967

Mahawa Kamara, Founder of Connoisseur Consults Sierra Leone and Lead Architect of DCBF

Hosted by Mahawa Kamara · Lead Architect, DCBF

The institution

DCBF is a platform, not just an event.

DCBF — the Diaspora Capital & Business Forum — is a strategic engagement platform that organises, coordinates, and operationalises local and diaspora capital already flowing into Sierra Leone.

Rather than focusing on attracting new investment, DCBF focuses on what happens after the money arrives: building the execution infrastructure that makes capital survivable and businesses investment-ready.

The platform — year-round

Advisory pipelines, field research across Freetown, Bo and Makeni, and ongoing connections between capital, businesses and institutions. The work never stops between events.

The annual convening — every December

The Capital & Business Lab: a half-day capital execution forum in Freetown, where the platform's work becomes a working session — 120 curated participants, three rooms, real outcomes.

The capital already exists. The structure does not. DCBF builds the structure.

The positioning

Not another diaspora investment event.

People keep asking whether The Capital & Business Lab is another diaspora investment event.

It isn't. And the distinction matters.

Investment forums do necessary work — they attract capital, build interest, and open the door. Sierra Leone needs that.

But nobody is answering the question that comes after. You've decided to invest. The capital has landed. Now what?

How do you hire? How do you stop cash leakage? What systems do you actually need? Why do businesses keep failing after the money arrives?

That's an execution problem, not an investment problem. And it's not a diaspora problem either. The businesses we've researched are funded by osusu, family lending, and reinvested trading profit. Local capital, flowing constantly, failing for exactly the same structural reason.

The gap is domestic. Not imported.

Investment forums create the appetite. The Capital & Business Lab builds the capacity to absorb it. Sequential, not competing.

The reality on the ground

Two flows. One wall.

Capital flows through Sierra Leone constantly. Both flows are real. Both are significant.

Local capital

Moves through the economy every single day.

Osusu
Family lending
Reinvested trading profit
Informal savings groups

Diaspora capital

Arrives from abroad all year round.

Remittances
Informal investment
Seasonal spending
Family-backed ventures

Both meet the same wall — they land in businesses that have no structure to hold them.

The capital exists. The infrastructure to absorb it does not.

The programme

What happens on the day.

Not a conference. Not panels. Not inspiration. A working session where diaspora investors and local Sierra Leonean businesses roll up their sleeves and figure out how capital actually functions in this economy — together.

10:00am

Doors, coffee and opening context — framing the capital-execution gap

Morning

Keynote — Sidi Saccoh · systems thinking for diaspora capital success

Morning

Panel — Why diaspora capital fails · structural vs execution problems

Late morning

Field research presentation — Mahawa Kamara · insights from field assessments across Sierra Leone

Midday

Coffee break

Midday

Roundtable working sessions — three tracks running simultaneously

Afternoon

Report back and close — commitments, next steps, follow-through

Networking lunch

Doors open 10:00am — one clock time, on purpose. The full timed programme is shared with your confirmation, and the day closes with a networking lunch in the early afternoon. Lagoonda Resort sits on the Aberdeen beachfront — directions come with your confirmation.

The working tracks

Three rooms. Three outcomes.

Track 1

Capital Gateways

How do I structure what I have?

For diaspora investors already moving money home who need frameworks, not guesswork. Map where capital currently sits, identify the gaps, walk through what structured deployment actually looks like in Sierra Leone's economy.

You leave with A capital structuring worksheet and a bank pathway

Partner fit Access Bank · VULT · Bloom Bank

Track 2

Business Protection Gateways

Am I actually ready?

For local SMEs and diaspora-backed businesses who want to become investment-ready. A live business health diagnostic — are the books in order? Are there systems? Is there oversight? What are the protection gaps?

You leave with A business health score and a protection action list

Partner fit J-Man Insurance · Local Content Agency · NIB

Track 3

Market Gateways

How do I get seen and grow?

For businesses ready to build presence and credibility in this market. How do you build trust with customers? How does brand credibility function in an informal economy? What does growth actually look like here?

You leave with A market positioning framework and a visibility action plan

Partner fit Local Content Agency · media partners

The Lab Principle — every track runs the same way: Diagnosis first. Structure second. Action third. Every participant walks out with something in their hand, not just something in their head.

The research foundation

Grounded in the field, not in theory.

Connoisseur Consult has been conducting field-based research across Sierra Leonean businesses since 2025 — 40 structured business visits between May and July 2026 alone, across formal retail premises and informal trading environments in Freetown, Bo and Makeni.

The forum agenda, the roundtable tracks, the partner conversations and the post-forum advisory pipelines are all built from what we are actually finding on the ground.

No formal record of daily sales — transactions settled in cash with nothing written down
No clear view of profit — owners can describe a feeling, not a figure
Personal and business money flowing through the same pocket
Staff reliability failing in the absence of structure, not attitude
Port clearance delays and taxes on goods squeezing already thin margins
Cash flow that swings between strong weeks and lean stretches with no buffer

Financial visibility is the root constraint — no records, no profit visibility, no separation of funds and unpredictable cash flow are one problem seen from four angles. Fixing record-keeping is the single highest-leverage entry point.

"Nobody else has this ground truth."

Who should be in the room

120 seats. Every seat intentional.

Diaspora investors & founders

Already moving money home. Want frameworks, not hype — tired of trust-based guesswork.

Local business owners

Serious SMEs with traction, ready for structure, partnerships or capital — and curious what investment-ready really means in practice.

Banks & financial institutions

Building diaspora capital pipelines and looking for genuinely investment-ready businesses.

Returning professionals & operators

Building something real in Sierra Leone and needing operational intelligence, not opportunity narratives.

Institutional partners

NIB, ecosystem builders and agencies with private-sector development and diaspora engagement mandates.

Curated, not open

Registration is by interest list. Every seat is intentional — tell us who you are and we will confirm your place.

What makes DCBF different

Not noise. Infrastructure.

Most diaspora events	DCBF — The Capital & Business Lab
One-time conferences	An ongoing platform — advisory pipelines run year-round
Policy-focused	Operations-focused — hiring, systems, cash, oversight
Attracting new investment	Structuring capital that already flows
Narrative-heavy	Architecture-heavy — built on field research
No follow-through	Built-in advisory pipelines after the Lab closes
Broad open audiences	120 curated participants
Tells you why to invest	Shows you how to operate

The methodology behind the Lab

Systems for Informal Wealth™

What Connoisseur Consults does at the micro level with individual businesses — diagnosing, structuring, systemising — DCBF does at the macro level with the ecosystem as a whole.

SFIW at micro scaleStructuring informal business capital for individual SMEs

→

DCBF at macro scaleStructuring diaspora capital flows and business execution for the ecosystem

Same methodology. Bigger stage.

Partners & institutions

Built with the ecosystem, for the ecosystem.

Confirmed

Connoisseur Consult Sierra Leone — lead organisation & research foundation
Local Content Agency — institutional partner
Sidi Saccoh — confirmed keynote speaker & investor · opens the Lab with systems thinking for diaspora capital success

Conversations underway

Access Bank Sierra Leone — banking & capital pathways
VULT — digital capital infrastructure
J-Man Insurance — risk & business protection
Bloom Bank — banking & SME growth
National Investment Board · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · SL High Commission London

Institution or brand looking to partner? Partner with us →

The Capital & Business Lab 2026

December 12. Freetown.

Half-day capital execution lab · 10:00am · Lagoonda Resort, Aberdeen, Freetown · 120 curated seats · Keynote: Sidi Saccoh

Join the interest list

"The capital already exists. The infrastructure to absorb it does not. DCBF builds the structure."

The Capital &Business Lab 2026