Minister of Energy (Ministry of Energy)

The energy sector has been performing well in the past years. However, Sierra Leone’s power sector is relatively small, with less than 100 MW of operational capacity and roughly 130,000 connected customers. Could you please describe the current plan of the government to enhance power generation in order to improve Sierra Leone business environment?

The government of Sierra Leone headed by H.E President Koroma seeks to rapidly increase power generation installed capacity from about 100 MW to a 1000MW.

That’s the energy sector strategy in the long term, which is proper documented and published on our website. So that’s a way to ensure we not only provide electricity for domestic use but also for industrial use and to stimulate economic growth.  As you are aware, we have a huge mining potential with one of the world’s largest iron ore deposits, we are also only on of the six places in the world that has rutile, we have huge deposit of bauxite and we also have the third largest deep see port in the world. As you can see, we have the right ingredients to make sure that we can extract and export a lot of natural resources, but electricity is fundamental to be able to ensure that the mining companies have low cost of extraction and make Sierra Leone even more attractive for investors to come and invest in Sierra Leone.


Sierra Leone’s Energy potential is tremendous – 27 possible hydropower sites, 500 to 700 million barrels of oil, 2200 Kwh/m for solar power. How do you plan to exploit this potential that could enable the country to be energy sufficient and maybe energy exporter?

The hydro potential is actually almost 5000 kWh/m split between small mini hydro, small hydro and medium large hydro. We have about 5 kWh/m2 per day of Sun so we have a huge solar potential as well. I am not sure about the figures for petroleum because the Ministry of Energy is more fully concern with power and not with petroleum.

With these figures it’s obvious we have a good opportunity to move quickly into renewables, which will promote climate change responsibility and will mitigate against some of the negative results of fossil fuels. This is not to take away the fact that in our situation you definitely need to have a base load because we are still bellow the industrial growth. So we need to have that kind of reliable base load of 24 hours a day which for now as far as technological constrains allow us, regarding the storage of electricity, you can only get that using fossil fuel. But of course is still important for you to have an energy mix so you can complement fossil fuel generation with other forms of more climate friendly electricity.

We are considering and planning each one of these electricity generation sources with its pluses and its minus. In the case of hydro it’s expensive initially to install, takes time (3-4 years) but after that time you will be able to see a lower tariff and a lower cost of operation.

Solar of course is faster to set up and to achieve commercial results but of course we have to deal with inconsistences of solar; clouds passing by and so on. Also, you need to have some kind of greed flexibility for when you will have those interruptions so the greed will still be protected and maintained.

Hydro has its own seasonality also which we have to consider. In fact our own hydro here, which is the largest power source, will give us 50MW in the raining season but in the dried season can go as low as 5 MW. We are not the only country suffering from this; Kenya has the same problem, Uganda, Ghana and Zambia as well. These are considerations that Government is taken into account to ensure that you are able to deliver the maximum of electricity.


One of the main objectives of the Agenda For Prosperity (A4P) is to attract and diversify FDI in the country and boost private sector investment, now estimated at only 10% of GDP. What is the potential of the energy sector for foreign investors? What does the Ministry of Energy do to attract investors?

When President first came to office, his first program was called the “the agenda for change”, that was focus on five sensitive sectors to make sure that we would turn around our mentality, the way of thinking and the way of doing things to promote and stimulate growth on the country. Now we are talking about “the agenda for prosperity” because now we believe we no longer should be talking about poverty elevation we should be talking about creation.
That’s the same focus the Ministry of Energy has, I am always saying that we should not be focus only on providing electricity for domestic use but we want to make sure that energy provides jobs, that energy provides businesses; energy provides growth, energy provides investment and stimulates the economy.
In the President program we are looking at all the ways that components of the Government come together and gives this one desire outcome.

So in Energy is simple, if we can have enough electricity for people then you will automatically be able to save more lives, you will improve on healthcare, education and education is very important for long term growth and development and you will improve agriculture because you will have powerful irrigation. Electricity is also useful for safe water delivery because you will be able to provide powerful pumping stations to costumers. Electricity is also useful for private sector, business small and medium business and also provides peace and security. Electricity plays all these roles.

We are very conscious of the importance of Energy. But the problem of electricity is that it has a reverse economic model, is not demand that creates supply is supply that creates demand.
So when you attract investors to come in they want to now two things: how much profit I am going to make and how much money am I going to save. In terms of how much money investors are going to make you can work that out trough the agreements you have with them. But in terms of securing their investment and how much money they are going to save you have to provide them risk mitigating instruments that guarantees their investment. Because we are still in a king of IMF management some of these instruments are difficult for Government to provide. This is why we need to look at creative ways to attract investors and to be flexible so that we can provide the necessary conditions for them to come in. I would like to mention that we have no strategy to attract investors for now.  In fact in October 2014, when I first took office we had a power Sierra Leone conference that took place in London and we were very delighted to see that the conference was really well attended and since then we had developed the interest and we found a lot of interest in Energy Sector in Sierra Leone.

As I said earlier our goal is to rapidly increase power generation installed capacity from about 100 MW to a 1000MW and we are pushing for that. We had some challenges but we will be able to hit the target in one or two years. It will have to be a combination between all resources, efforts and hopefully working with partners that are flexible and innovative.


The Action National Coalition at their Award Ceremony has awarded the Ministry of Energy as the Best Performing Ministry on Saturday 4th February 2017 in Sierra Leone. Congratulations! What were the main reasons behind this success and what would you like to achieve in the near future?

Energy I called it the most primitive sector because either you have light or you don’t, there is no middle term. In a way is a very sensitive sector and is one that is very easy to major; if you performing and people has electricity of course they will tell you that you are preforming. If they don’t have electricity they will say right away that you are not preforming. It doesn’t matter for them if I am coming at 7 am in the morning and spent all day working until 10 pm, if people don’t have electricity they will say the sector is not working.

Because of the improvements in electricity we have been able to see a better appreciation to the Minister’s efforts but then it also comes a risk to the Ministry, because you raise expectations. And now also knowing electricity is available people are on more demand.

I frequent give the example of Tunisia because is an example that impresses me when it comes to Energy. They have 99.8 % energy access. That is because they start delivering planning’s since 1960’s. They have a pick demand of about 3000-3200 MW but they have installed capacity of 5.000 MW, and every year they add 120 MW. And this is because in electricity you have to have what we call spinning reserve.
Right now we are running our power plans at maximum, and we are not suppose to do that because you are shorting their life span. You should run them at 60 - 70% of the installed capacity, that what is supposed to happen. You need to have more power than what you need today, because machines will break down.

What happens is you are always on and off power because you have more than what you need. So what happens if you have one down, another replaces it and you are fine. So you need to have more power then what you need. But that comes with a price as well.

This is some of the challenges that we face but the appetizer has been stimulated, appreciation for power is there even at the time when we did a tariff adjustment (last one was in 2008). People complained naturally because of theses tariff adjustment. But at the end of the day people were able to work with the Government.

Our plans is to keep doing what we are doing in terms of planning for the future we just want to be constant and remain focus despite of all the issues we are having.  We need to ensure we spread the power specially to rural areas where we have most of the solutions such as the “Energy Evolution” which President launch in May 10th last year, which will provide up to 200-300.000 . We are moving along all fronts and hopefully we are moving to success that will be sustainable.


11th August 2016 marked another milestone to the Energy sector when the government of Sierra Leone and the Exim bank of India signed a 78 million us dollars loan agreement at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Conference hall for the construction of transmission lines from Bumbuna to Freetown through many routes with sub stations. Could you explain a little bit this project, is it finished now (supposedly 2017)? What is its impact on power generation in the country? When do you think Sierra Leone will be power sufficient?

We only have one high tension now and are 161KV and are coming from the Bumbuna Town down to Freetown (which is 220 Km). It doesn’t have enough capacity to push us to our desire destination of electrification. So what he had developed is a three-leg transmission backbone strategy;

We have on leg coming from south of Sierra Leone passing trough a potential site of hydro almost at the border of Sierra Leone with Liberia. So this line, original transmission line is coming from Cote d’Ivoire into Liberia and enters in Sierra Leone by this mini hydro site until East of Sierra Leone where we have another mini hydro site with 160 MW up to Bumbuna Fase II and then out of Sierra Leone. It’s a 225 KV and is afforded by the 4 Governments; Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and also by development partners: World Bank, European Bank and much more.

We have also the Indian Exim Bank project that you talked about which is another transition line supposed to start from Bumbuna face II that is also going to be a 225 kV. It’s going to come from Bumbuna face II down to Freetown.  This one also will allow us to export power, so it’s a very important line this one. Because is a 5KV large capacity will be able to transport more electricity at a time. The third line we have which is going to complete the triangle is a line that we also hope to conclude quickly. That is going to be our transmission backbone project.


When do you think Sierra Leone will be power sufficient?

We have a plan for 2030, by then we should be power sufficient in Sierra Leone. We are working towards that destination knowing fully well that power never stops, the more you supply the more you need to supply and we are fully aware of that and we hope to be sufficient attracted to investors so they can help the Government to achieve this goal.


Your resume is off the charts as for your international experience and your languages skills have made you the best performing ministry and minister after two years. What are you most proud since you took office?

First of all, thankfully for me, I had some preparation before. I am an electrical engineer and I had the experience of being a quite successful businessman from the private sector before becoming a diplomat. So I think during those stages I had enough preparation for his job, which some people call it a “piousness challenge” because being the Minister of Energy is probably one of the most difficult tasks you can ever have.
I came in as the Minister of Energy as the most transformational time, the time we had to transform the sector. Get reed of the old National Power Authority which was completely Government funded and turn the mentally of the sector around to business oriented. When I entered I realized I was clearly the only business mind person of the all sector, everyone else was engineer and they had no idea about business. So it had been a very difficult task to change the mind-set of people.  I trying to pass the message that “light is right” is not a privilege is a right, I am trying as well to show that electricity is a business, also telling people that costumer comes first and another tool I used was talking to several social media groups for Energy and get all my officials added on and members to the public added one.

Our people are constantly put under pressure, because my people are constantly reporting. So that was a high-risk strategy because you bring the public into our private space. Before it was shaded and in some kind of mystery where the public only gets what it gets and cannot ask questions back. So that’s something that I did, I put my people under pressure and that’s when I got some results.  I try to tell them that they can’t run away from their responsibility. That’s one of the successes I had achieved and I look back with some level of satisfaction on being able to change the mentality of people because that was the most difficult.  

I remembered been asked in the beginning of my mandate; “Mr. Minister why do you think you will succeed when others had failed?” And I said I am not coming here to teach people engineering because I am sure most of them have more experience then I do. I think its all about management and If I have been able to manage people of other nationalities when I was an Ambassador (for 7 countries based in Nigeria) and also the permanent secretary of ECOAS I should be able to bring some management skills to the table. So I look back with satisfaction on that. On the Technical aspect I also look back with some delight on the growth we had made in electricity 538% growth on the electricity production. And also I was able to attract investors and grow the investor’s appetite and I also look with delight to some of the mechanism we were able to developed. So I think my time as Minister of Energy has been very well spent and will certainly build a secure foundation for the future and existence of energy sector in this country.


Personal message to EbizGuides readership.

Sierra Leone has just about 7 million people, is a small beautiful country in the Atlantic Ocean and easily accessible to travellers from Europe and Asia and Middle East. Sierra Leone has a lovely weather, fantastic people, great potential, huge resources under the ground and it is one of the best destinations for investment. I believe with such a small size is a country that is easily impacted on. You will see the results more quickly comparing to other countries with a bigger population. We have a government that has been very proactive, investor friendly, private sector friendly and I believe we have set the right benchmarks and partnerships so you can see how serious we are about public private partnership. All of that shows that we are really keen on working with investors, we set the platform and we will be more than happy to welcoming everyone that would like to come in.