Austine Luseni: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 18 February 2020:
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay led a high-level delegation of his ministry officials and the country’s electricity generation and distribution agencies on a nationwide tour of Transco Manor River electricity grid facilities that are being constructed across the country.
The tour was an opportunity for the minister and team to make a first-hand assessment of the progress made in completing the Manor River Union electricity grid project which aims at jointly providing reliable electricity to the respective Mano River Union countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Ivory Coast.
The energy minister, together with his delegation spent days on tour, visiting Makeni, Bumbuna, Yiben, Kamakwei , Pujehun and Kenema.
Country Director for Transco – the company supervising the project on behalf of the four Mano River Union Governments – Paul Saffa, took the minister and team on a conductor tour of the various installations and facilities in the areas visited.
Speaking about the current state of the project , Paul Saffa expressed satisfaction with the good working relationship his company has with the minister and his ministry, and praised the government for its relentless support and commitment to completing the project .
The country director told the minister that the project’s mission is to import electricity from Ivory Coast through Liberia and to Sierra Leone and Guinea, through transmission lines, when completed.
“The line between Bumbuna and Yiben is now complete . We are only waiting to connect the line to other stations . The substation at Yiben is also nearing completion and that substation will be connected to Kamakwei from where it will be linked with Guinea,” Saffa assured the energy minister
“The work on the Liberia -Zimmi line is also in progress; and the substations, the towers and the pylons at Zimmi are now coming up with remarkable speed and work rate . The Kenema substation is 100 percent complete in terms of engineering works and is ready to receive power. This station will transmit power to Kono.
“I am pleased to inform you Hon. Minister that between now and March, the three substations of Bumbuna, Bikonko and Kenema will all be fully completed,” Transco’s country director confidently assured the minister .
According to Mr Saffa, they are on course to meeting the deadline of the project by June; and immediately after that, the energization process will start in July, barring any unfortunate circumstances.
The energy minister expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved so far. He said that his monitoring tour is in fulfilment of the agreement among the four countries in respect of the regional connectivity program. He said that he has just returned from Ivory Coast where he attended a very important meeting with other energy ministers and the World Bank.
Energy minister Sesay will embark on a similar tour in a not too distant future . Things can only get better in the energy sector; and the minister has promised not to rest until the entire country is energy secure.
Young4na, each time you respond to my comments, you raise concerns about your ability to comprehend basic issues. Where in my comments did I even remotely insinuate that the Mano River Union Energy project was initiated by the SLPP government? It is one thing to start a project. But it is a quite a different thing to ensure that work on that project continues to a fruitful conclusion. This is exactly what the Julius Maada Bio government has done for which it deserves praise. Is it always politics when a government is praised for being effective and efficient?
I do not need any subtle lectures about the APC government or the APC as a political party. In my book the APC is a decrepit, perfidious and debauchery organization that represents an existential threat to the development of Sierra Leone. Hopefully, the downward spiral that that party is presently experiencing will lead to its ultimate and well deserved demise.
Bilal coleman says — “The current SLPP government assumed a broken economy from a bunch of crooks representing a criminal organization that masqueraded as a political party. At face value, the task of picking up the pieces and developing a coherent and functional entity capable of evolving into a modern state seemed daunting. But where there is political will, conviction and determination, nothing is intimidating. Gradually, Sierra Leone is being transformed in front of our eyes. The free education program is only getting better. Soon, Sierra Leone will have 24 hours of uninterrupted electricity supply. A reliable energy supply can form the basis for sustained socio-economic growth and development.”
Mr. Coleman, I believe many in this forum are accustomed to your tendencies of being less upfront and truthful in regards to current and historical events in Salone. In the midst of glaring evidence of your utterance, time and again, you will fabricate things, and just when you are called out, you will turn around proclaiming innocence while denying flatly. What I want you to know is that, this forum participants are not your typical villagers who can just propagate your unfounded assertions and fake news.
The Sierra Leone Telegraph news outlet is a renowned credible news organization. That is the very reason thousands of readers choose this outlet as their only reliable source for events happening back home. So, seriously readers like myself will not sit by and allow ilks like you to taint this newspaper’s image for personal political reasons. I personally have made it a duty to debunk any misleading statement that you or any other unscrupulous individual choose to make for reasons only known to you. So be ready for me Mr. Coleman. I will expose you each time you make a misleading statement. Lonta….
What about electricity in all of Waterloo and surrounding areas. They keep promising it.
Congratulations to all the four countries involved in sharing and solving their energy problems. By connecting the four countries, I am sure the drive for an economic and trade partnership will be achieved. Congratulation to Mr. Saffa and his team for their hardwork to make the project come true. Thanks to Alhaji Sesay for all his work for the country.
Could this be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel?For decades there have been false promises and starts from different administrations which should make Sierra Leoneans sceptical until they actually see a constant supply of electricity with their naked eye.The tunnel has been so long that the light at the end of it may temporarily blind some people.The hope is that the light will stay long enough for everybody’s eyes to adjust to it, by which time they will have decided what to make of it and who to praise for its arrival.
The refreshing and significant element of this development is that it portrays a south-south cooperation by countries with meager means,a worrying scenario for those who do not wish to see Africa progress, to be used and dumped at will – a market for producers all over the world.Slowly the second largest continent in the world is beginning to wake up and position itself where it should be, a world away from being treated capriciously by those who,even in the 21st century, regard its people as unintelligent and gullible,especially those in so-called sub-saharan Africa.
Surely there are African leaders whose heads are located somewhere else other than on top of their shoulders but they will bend with the prevailing conditions in due course – they have no choice,or they will become something to be ridiculed both at home and abroad.I hope and pray that Maada Bio does not fall into that category.
It is a universal truth that the core function of a government is to solve problems and advance the frontiers of development. The current SLPP government assumed a broken economy from a bunch of crooks representing a criminal organization that masqueraded as a political party. At face value, the task of picking up the pieces and developing a coherent and functional entity capable of evolving into a modern state seemed daunting. But where there is political will, conviction and determination, nothing is intimidating.
Gradually, Sierra Leone is being transformed in front of our eyes. The free education program is only getting better. Soon, Sierra Leone will have 24 hours of uninterrupted electricity supply. A reliable energy supply can form the basis for sustained socio-economic growth and development.
Although inward foreign direct investment has not yet picked up steam, there is a large-scale Turkish investment in rice production in Torma Bom. Additionally, the African Development Bank recently announced its desire to approve $14 million dollars for innovative farming. And there is even more good news – the growth rate of the economy for this year is projected at 5%.
The rate of inflation continues to stubbornly hover around 14%, down from 18% in 2018. But economists project this rate to drop into single digits by 2021. With the sustained war on corruption, it is expected that the gains of growth will trickle down to the citizenry in the form of improved living standards. A necessary inference to draw from all of this is that the government of President Julius Maada Bio is delivering on its mandate.
Mr. Coleman, must you politicize every ounce of good news emanating from the subregion? For your information, this project was initiated more than 6yrs ago, and work have been going on before your SLPP party came into power. So like many other projects nearing completion, your party basically did nothing to impact these projects.
Government being a continuity, the SLPP is only there as a spectator making sure what was started get completed. I personally detest fabricated things, this is why I stay away from many media outlets whose sole purpose is to spread propaganda for politics and personal benefits. Here is a link indicating the start of the Mano river electrification project.
https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/pioneering-energy-project-to-bring-relief-to-mano-river-union-countries-12527
Good news for our region the MANO RIVER; may God help us and protect us from evil. We must unite, especially these three nations SIERRA LEONE; LIBERIA; GUINEA. I think joining hands together can help in building good relations and trade. We are all children of the MANO RIVER region. So lets keep the peace and develop this region.
Huge potentials ahead if this manor river project becomes successfully implemented. With a slight exception to Ivory Coast and Guinea, both Sierra Leone and Liberia are decades behind in terms of development compared to their counterparts in the subregion. So the provision of additional electricity nationwide will surely serve as a catalyst for other developmental activities.