AYV News, March 14, 2025
Leader of the Opposition in Sierra Leone’s Parliament, Honorable Abdul Kargbo has called on Parliament to question the country’s Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) for unregulated energy supply destroying properties of citizens.
The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) in Sierra Leone recently blamed 70% of the thirty-eight fire cases reported in the country within the last two months, on bad electricity.
Head of the country’s energy sector, Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella has ordered a comprehensive audit – financial, technical and operational – of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority in Sierra Leone (EDSA).
He said he has instructed the EDSA Board to hire a private company and bring in experts to dissect EDSA completely from A to Z, in everything they have done in their financials.
Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella: “We know during the process of this audit, there will be pains, but when the system is not working it is not working, so we are going to fix it”.
He informed that the audit will also look at inefficiencies within the EDSA, its metering system and how to fix them. He revealed further that they have noticed that there are lots of payments made by customers that do not reflect into EDSA accounts but to some other strange accounts.
EDSA he said is supposed to be collecting 8 million United States dollars but unfortunately, the Authority is now collecting 5 million dollars, assuring that the audit will have to explain where the balance of 3 million dollars is going.
Dr. Yumkella recently strongly recommended the urgent reformation of the EDSA, if Sierra Leone is to achieve all its good and many plans.
Dr. Yumkella said: “We need to fix EDSA if we are to achieve all our good and many plans. EDSA should be able to pay investors when they generate electricity. That will encourage more investors to come in. EDSA board has to be comprised of professional and technical people. It is not witch-hunting, but EDSA has to be reformed and be more efficient and effective”.
He said energy is an investment issue and not a charity, adding that the investors have to see that projects are bankable and viable.
