In 2016, a team from the World Bank advised the Government of Sierra Leone, through the Ministry of Energy that, the best solution to Sierra Leone’s energy crisis was to dismantle the entire energy infrastructure and shut it down for three years whilst a new energy infrastructure is constructed.

The APC Minister of Energy Ambassador Henry Macaulay rejected the proposal and ordered the World Bank team to leave his office. We understand that a similar proposal was made to the SLPP government in 2020 but it was rejected.

The APC brought in an emergency power, by hiring Aggreko. The Aggreko contract was expensive. Aside from the one-off payment of US$1.7M as capacity charge, EDSA was to provide fuel for the Aggreko plant and pay US31 Cents per Kwh. This was an expensive contract that almost paralyzed EDSA.

As an alternative, the APC brought Karpowership from Turkey to provide emergency electricity supply to the Western Area.

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Before the 7th March, 2018 general elections, the APC had concluded an agreement with Karpowership to provide electricity to the Western Area for 19.5 US Cents per Kwh. The contract was never implemented.

When the SLPP came to power in April 2018, the Karpowership was already in Freetown. There was already perennial blackout in the capital city.

After Alhaji Kanja Sesay was appointed as Minister of Energy, he quickly renegotiated the contract with Karpowership. A two-year contract for the supply of 30MW of electricity was concluded between the Government of Sierra Leone and Karpowership.

On 8th June, 2018 Kanja Sesay signed a renegotiated contract with Karpowership for US16.4 Cents per Kwh. The APC had negotiated and agreed to pay US19.5 Cents per Kwh. The new SLPP government was able to save the government of Sierra Leone US$18M for the first two years that the contract was signed. The contract was later extended by five years. It ends on 30th June, 2025.

For the past seven years, Karpowership have consistently supplied reliable electricity to the Western Area. On 1st April, 2019 Karpowership agreed to increase electricity supply from 30MW to 50MW by bringing in an additional Powership to Freetown. This saw a significant improvement in the supply of electricity in the Western Area.

The Management of Karpowership have consistently put the interests of the people of Sierra Leone above money. Even when payments due to them have delayed for the past several months now, the company did not turn-off their generators. They kept them running.
Presently, the company is owed about US$72 Million.

The Karpowership contract was hailed as the best. No hidden charges, no capacity charge, no payment for fuel and no payment for spare parts. Wear and tear was (is) the sole responsibility of the company.

Now that the Karpowership contract is coming to an end on 30th June, 2025 let us express gratitude to the company for consistently proving reliable electricity supply rather than grabbing headline news by disclosing that, the company has received US$320M from the Government of Sierra Leone since 2018.

The least we can do now is to thank the management of Karpowership for consistently providing reliable electricity supply to the capital city for the past seven years and not to make it a political debate of gains and losses that KKY is making as energy sector lead.

The Government of Sierra Leone should now find a permanent and lasting solution to the energy crisis in the country. That will be one of President Julius Maada Bio’s enduring legacies when he retires from the Presidency.