Sierra Leone’s Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay has signed a Power Purchase Agreement, PPA, on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone, with Koidu Holdings Limited at a ceremony in Kono.

Sesay said that Koidu Holdings was the first mining company that was going to take energy from the grid and that the Government of Sierra Leone was having a power purchase agreement with. He said the occasion was in fulfillment of President Julius Maada Bio’s call for the productive use of energy.

He said a couple of months ago,he was in Kono to assess the possibility of mining companies taking electricity from the grid through PPAs, adding that he was happy to be at a ceremony marking the realization of such an optimistic endeavour.

Sesay praised the company for their collaboration and in ensuring that the project materialized, adding that the ceremony was going be used as a flagship project or a blueprint for future agreements with other mining companies.

General Manager of Koidu Holdings Limited, Rocco Vermeulen, said the company would start the uptake of electricity from the grid in November, noting that he was happy and proud to see his company being the first to forge such a partnership with the government.

He thanked the Minister and his team and committed his company to working mutually with the Ministry of Energy for the development of the energy and mining sectors.