NEWTON, Sierra Leone, (Reuters) – West Africa’s first tax-exempt economic zone has opened in Sierra Leone, aiming to produce the impoverished country’s first significant value-added exports since the end of its civil war nine years ago.
The First Step Economic Opportunity Zone provides its tenants with duty- and tax-exempt status for any goods or capital equipment they import, along with a three-year tax holiday.
Fruit juice concentrate producer Africa Felix, the first tenant at the 54-acre site at Newton, an hour’s drive from the
