AYV News, February 20, 2025
Chairman of the Energy Governance Coordination Group in Sierra Leone, Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella has revealed that between January and June this year, Sierra Leone has to pay the Karpowership 90 million United States dollars and that by the end of the contract, the country would have pay over 300 million United States dollars.
He was speaking in an interview with AYV Wake Up Sierra Leone while discussing the status of the Energy Sector in the country. He informed that President Dr. Julius Maada Bio is determined that the country must break the circle of emergency power.
Dr. Yumkella said: “We are repairing our own generators at Kingtom and Black Hall road. Earlier, I promised the people of Sierra Leone that we will try to get Kingtom to start to pump power by January and indeed, with the help of the Japanese, we have repaired the two generators there, we are providing fuel and we will begin to pump in 10 megawatts”.
He tendered an unreserved apology to the people of Sierra Leone on behalf of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Agency (EDSA) for the inefficiency of power supply in the country.
Dr. Yumkella said: “Let me apologise on behalf of EDSA for the way EDSA has managed distribution of electricity in the country, collection of the monies people pay and the kinds of meters they have provided over time. So I am apologising for the whole energy sector but particularly EDSA”.
Further speaking, Dr. Yumkella said Freetown on a daily basis needs between 130 to 150megawatts of electricity supply for adequate consumption for its people, but unfortunately, the capital can only be provided with 65 to 70megawatts daily as it is now.
He said the country is only able to give that much because it is not generating enough, while thanking the Karpowership, which he said is now being used to fill the gap by providing 50 to 60megawatts additional to the country.
Dr. Yumkella said: “We don’t have enough generation capacity but even if we generated much more, we are still going to have bottle necks in distributions, because we do not have sufficient transformers, substations and more facilities needed”.
He said as of the latest survey, there are three hundred and fifty thousand registered customers in the city, not accounting for the illegal customers stealing and using electricity on a daily basis.
He said in 2018, the installed capacity in the whole country was 130 MW and by end of 2024, it is 270MW, which he said is a major increase over the last six years but far below what the nation needs.
He went on: “The Number of EDSA customers By 2018 was 190,000 customers registered. Currently, it is about 350,000 registered, leaving behind those connected illegally. Kapower was an emergency power agreement. The president is determined to be energy independent, and self-sufficient, and we are rapidly working on that transition. To do that transition, there is going to be some pain. We have to weed ourselves off 20 years of emergency power.
“We are also powering the provinces, over the last six years, Government has tried to expand the transmission line at Kenema and Bo to evacuate more power from the CLSG. Albeit these successes, we are still having individuals vandalising those infrastructure. We have been able to switch on, Bonthe, Pujehun and Moyamba and we are working on the other districts headquarter towns as part of the seven districts electrification Project.When you have blackout, do not panic, the goal is to transition from energy emergency to sustainable means of energy supply. The reason for Energy Transition.President Bio has a clear plan. We assure you that, we will supply electricity to all. We don’t want to do quick fix. We are solving a 40 years old problem. It will take time, but we will solve them.
“The President wants us to remain focus on achieving energy sovereignty. He wants us to transition to a bigger source of power. We also owe Transco CLSG another 20 Million Dollars. Energy is a system issues, it is not a quick fix and we are staying in that trajectory. I am excited in my new role, because I know it can be done. Indeed, it’s not Kandeh, it’s the team. The President, leading from the front, has called us to join him and fix this problem once and for all. I am very confident because we have the team. It’s an exciting opportunity to help this country”.
