3 Comments
Hon. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change Renewable Energy and Food Security, has described the project for the construction of Bumbuna Phase 2 by a private firm known as SELI Energy as a fiction.
Yumkella made this statement during the government weekly press briefing on Tuesday 2nd July, 2024 at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Tower Hill in Freetown.
During his statement, Hon Kandeh Yumkella lashed out at people who come with bad projects to fleece the State, adding that he has undertaken an in-depth research into SELI Energy and the Bumbuna Phase 2 project that was supposed to implement.
He said twelve years ago Joule Energy came and proposed the Bumbuna phase 2 project to the country, adding that the energy company started changing hands from Joule Energy to SELI Energy.
Hon Dr. Kandeh Yumkella said SELI Energy held the country’s assets for twelve years without building the propose Bumbuna phase 2 but recently demanded US$90 million from the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) since the latter has demanded that the assets be returned to the State.
He said the project was a fiction because SELI Energy wanted to sell the energy to Sierra Leone three times higher and described it as a bad deal, adding that he can’t stand for it and that is why he has stood against it.
Chairman Yumkella disclosed that everywhere they went and mentioned Bumbuna, every Development Financial Institution would ask Is it SELI? Is it Joule?” and they would say hell no, it isn’t.
He added that they would always tell Development Financial Institutions that the project government is initiating is Bumbuna 1 Upgrade and that Bumbuna Phase 2 is dead and government is ready to go for arbitration.
The Chairman challenged that SELI Energy doesn’t have the money to implement the Bumbuna Phase 2 project, asserting that though some people are afraid, he has in no uncertain terms told President Dr. Julius Maada Bio to put a concrete over it so that they would go for arbitration, adding that they are going to fight against SELI Energy’s bad deal for the world to know how such companies are fleecing smaller nations.
It could be recalled that twelve years ago, Joule Energy now SELI Energy proposed the construction of US$1.2 billion Bumbuna Phase 2 in Kondembaia Town, Diang Chiefdom, Koinadugu District, to provide 150MW But twelve years on, the project has not begun but the energy company is now requesting US$90 million from the government in order to return the assets of the State, a request which the government has vehemently kicked against.
I duff my hat off to you Sir for standing up for the people of this beautiful nation. These corrupt and fake companies with corrupt government officials prey on poor nations like ours to enriched themselves.
Do kandeh possesses any thing call credibility & a human face at all. Sierra Leoneans are not interested in people like kandeh.
With all your bogus so-called education you claim to possess, what a shame to see you basically become an enemy & architect of the country’s economic destruction.
Dr. Kandeh, you a shame and disgrace to our beloved country. Because you amongst other few elements conspired to ruined the country, see where you people have now translated or transported the country from heaven now to hell wow.
So what are you saying?. Shame on you. The people of the country called, Sierra Leone have lost their conviction and confidence upon you, what a deceitful compromised psychopath.
This is the time we will know if Dr. Kandeh is really a technocrat by forcing those thieves to return our property