By: Austine Luseni
Communications Specialist
Ministry of Energy
Contact: 077377042/034157390
Energy Reformation
Bo/Kenema, Southeastern Sierra Leone, Wednesday 24 June 2020—
Amid unbridled joy and jubilation, minister of energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay has symbolically presented sixteen 40ft containers loaded with some three thousand and fifty wooden poles meant for the Bo-Kenema Network Rehabilitation and Expansion Project to the people of the two cities. The wooden poles constitute the first shipment of an overall large-scale consignment of materials, including steel poles, wooden poles, cables, power transformers and conductors.
With support from the African Development Bank, DFID and the Government of Sierra Leone, the ministry of energy is implementing a mega energy project for the cities of Bo and Kenema, which will involve the total rehabilitation of distribution lines and the expansion of the grid to enhance access in line with the vision of President Julius Maada Bio.
The minister and his team were received at Kebbie town, Bo, by the Resident Minister South, Mr Mohamed Alie. The resident minister said he was pleased to receive the minister on such a groundbreaking and landmark occasion.
Making a brief statement , minister of energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay said he had come with a beautiful news for the people of Bo in respect of electricity. He noted that he was not unaware of the electricity problems the town was faced with, noting that as an indigene of Bo he had himself got some first-hand experience of the pains and inconveniences which the situation of erratic power supply or blackouts normally bring to bear on the people. Mr Sesay intimated the jubilant crowd that he was in the city to symbolically show them the poles and to assure them that Government was committed to undertaking the project with urgency and accuracy.
Mr Sesay informed the people of Bo that the poles were just the first consignment that had arrived, but that in the coming weeks, several other items meant for the project would arrive. He told the people that he would be visiting them frequently for purposes of conveying the items as they arrive. He assured them that their electricity woes would soon be over, while noting that he would take the consignment to Kenema for the people to see and then bring them to Yormandu for storage.
In Kenema, the minister was received by the Resident Minister East, Mr Andrew Fatorma, who expressed similar sentiments that his opposite number in the South had expressed.
The minister of energy re-echoed what he earlier said in Bo, adding that that new areas that have sprung up in the city would benefit from the project in respect of being connected the grid, while also assuring that the project was truly dedicated to permanently solving their electricity problems.
The minister and his team processed along the major roads of Kenema as jubilant residents danced with joy and a collective sense of relief.
The Bo-Kenema Network Rehabilitation and Expansion Project is certainly a step in the right direction, and with such a project, the persistent electricity worries of the two cities might be a thing of the past anytime soon.
