By: Austine Luseni
The minister of energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay has led a high-powered team of officials of his ministry on a one-day tour of the Energy Utility Reform Project sites in Freetown, on Friday 5th June, 2020. Officials of the Government of Sierra Leone/ World Bank co-funded Energy Utility Reform Project also formed part of the delegation.
The astute minister and team visited substation project sites at Cline Town ,Falcon Bridge ,Kingtom,Congo Cross,Brookfields,Lumley and Borbor Beach. At these various sites, works on installations of vital substations are either complete or are close to being completed. The tour received a wide media coverage from electronic and print media houses .
Explaining the relevance of the project, Alhaji Kanja Sesay began by speaking on the overall vision of the ministry of energy and the Government of Sierra Leone which entails the consolidation,improvement and expansion of existing and potential energy supply infrastructure . The energy minister stated that President Bio in his campaign message, promised the country that he was going to move the energy access upwards, so as to allow a good number of citizens have access to clean ,affordable and reliable energy.
The Energy Utility Reform Project, according to the minister , is a joint project of the Government of Sierra Leone and the World Bank which costs some 40 million dollars and which is dedicated to rehabilitatating, improving and expanding the network in the Western Area. Mr Sesay noted that once the project was completed ,it would massively help in the evacuation of electricity from substations or transformers to homes and industries and would also improve the quality of electricity.
Mr Sesay described the Cline Town Substation as the biggest,while also maintaining that the completion of the substation will positively impact the work of industries or factories concentrated in the area with respect to access to quality electricity. He noted that residents in the area who often complain about the poor quality of electricity will no longer have cause to complain once the substation was up and running .
Speaking on the social importance of electricity,Mr Sesay said that the social importance of electricity cannot be overemphasized. “At a time like this when people are restricted in their movements by the Covid 19 regulations , they spend most of their time at home and spending time at home induces the need to have social entertainments which are largely driven by electricity,” the minister remarked . The energy minister also spoke about the economic significance of electricity and reiterated his commitment and that of his team to working towards achieving the overall policy objective of the government .
On the national front ,the energy minister said he was pleased to inform journalists and citizens on the launch of a procurement process in which six contractors have been identified. These contractors will soon start to do transmission and distribution networks in the six district headquarter towns of Kambia,Kabala,Pujehun ,Kailahun ,Mattru, Bonthe and Moyamba.He assured that within the next couple of years ,the provision of electricity in these districts would be realized .The minister also spoke about places like Kamakwei and Falaba which stand to hugely benefit from the CLSG project .
The minister and team were briefed by contractors and engineers at various sites . Judging by the strides taken in the sector ,the future of Sierra Leone in the energy sector and under the leadership of the dynamic minister, can only be bright . And in the words of the minister, ”Hopefully before the end of the first term of President Bio ,the greater part of the country would have access to electricity.”
