OpEd: As KKY Gets Kicked Out of the Energy Sector, Where Is the Promised $2.2 Billion?

When Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY) launched Mission 300, he promised an “energy revolution” that would finally light up Sierra Leone.

He spoke of 300 megawatts of new power, near-universal access by 2030, and a $2.2 billion package that would transform the country. It was a grand vision. But now that KKY has been kicked out of the energy sector, Sierra Leoneans are left asking a simple question: where is the $2.2 billion?

KKY presented Mission 300 as if the money had already been secured. He told the public that international partners and private investors had pledged massive support, creating the impression that funds were ready and projects were about to start. Yet no evidence has surfaced. There are no binding agreements, no disbursement records, and no visible projects tied to the $2.2 billion claim. If the money was real, where is it?

To make matters worse, two of the biggest projects he highlighted, the Bumbuna Expansion and the Nant Energy Project, were already secured long before Mission 300 began. Their financing and plans were in place years earlier. Why, then, did KKY count them as new achievements? Was this a deliberate attempt to pad the numbers and make Mission 300 look larger than it really was?

The presentation he gave at the Ministry of Information press conference looked impressive, but it was mostly slides and projections, not proof. It celebrated policies, manuals, and strategies instead of showing real power plants or new capacity. Sierra Leoneans were promised megawatts but got PowerPoints instead. If the funding truly exists, why has not a single new major project started under Mission 300?

Meanwhile, ordinary citizens continue to live in darkness. Power cuts still hit Freetown and other towns. Businesses rely on generators, students study by candlelight, and families continue to pay high tariffs for unreliable service. If billions were mobilized, why has nothing changed?

For the sake of his credibility and the respect of the people he once promised to serve, Dr. Yumkella must now produce the numbers. How much funding was actually secured? From whom? When will it be disbursed? What projects are under contract? Sierra Leoneans deserve real answers, not political talk.

If the money is there, show it. If not, admit it. Because at this point, Mission 300 looks less like an energy revolution and more like a publicity exercise. The lights are still off, the people are still waiting, and the man who promised to power a nation now owes that nation the truth.