OTEC Engineering – an energy investment firm has engaged Sierra Leone’s Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security and his team to discuss potential investment in the energy sector, especially in renewables.
OTEC’s Executive General Manager, Fan Lian, stated that they had met with the Ministry of Energy and are meeting with the Chairman and his team to see how they can all work together to revamp Sierra Leone’s energy sector. In particular, they expressed an interest in solar, hydropower and wind power.
Chairman Yumkella took the opportunity to appraise them of President Julius Maada Bio’s vision for the energy sector including desire for both short and long term solutions to fixing the country’s ailing energy sector including the Bumbuna Hydro project which with two additional turbines can increase the energy supply in the country.
Dr. Yumkella further challenged the group to pursue long-term energy solutions that are sustainable, noting that this is an option that President Bio is interested in.
Following the meeting with PI-CREF, OTEC will meet with the Ministry of Energy. They are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which includes the implementation 50 Megawatts solar installation, the provision of smart meters to curb electricity theft in the country among other emergency solutions to the current energy problems the country faces.
In another development, Dr. Yumkella has embarked on series of verification exercises within Kambia district.
The move is to ascertain the level at which lands have been ploughed and harrowed during this planting season.
He also handed over rice milling machines and other mechanized farming tools to the farmers, signaling the seriousness attached to President Julius Maada Bio’s flagship programme called ‘Feed Salone’.
“Farming is an all-government approach. That is why I am here to give support to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Musa Kpakra, who is unavoidably absent today. I am also here to verify the number of hectares that have been ploughed and to also ascertain whether we would meet our target of cultivating 3,000 hectares of rice farm this year within Kambia district,” he said in the presence of the Chief Agriculture Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Presidential Spokesman Hon. Alpha Kanu, the District Agriculture Officer, the President of the National Federation of Farmers of Sierra Leone (NAFSL), among many other stakeholders.
He said the rice milling machines and other equipment that were handed over to the farmers were to prove that President Bio’s government was seriously serious about feeding Sierra Leone.
Dr. Yumkella noted that in Sierra Leone, some women were still in the habit of pounding rice using locally-made mortar and pestle, adding that with these rice milling machines that the government has provided, that labourious task would be eliminated among the women.
“President Bio’s government has provided the required technological support and access to finance for farmers which means that there should no longer be a bottleneck to achieving food security within the country,” he told his audience, while calling on the farmers to always provide feedbacks about the ongoing planting season to the appropriate authorities for prompt action.
He said to effectively realize the potential of the rice milling machines, there was a need for affordable cost effective energy solution, noting that President Bio’s government has made tremendous progress in that regard.