The minister of energy and power, Haja Afsatu Kabba, has publicly said the 15 mega watt (MW) generator for the supply of electricity in Freetown will be in town by December 18 and will be commissioned two days later.
Haja Afsatu Kabba, who was addressing journalists at her ministry’s conference hall Friday, said the generator and other accessories were on their way here.
She disclosed that the generator and the accessories would be brought into the country by Mearsk Line shipping agency which had assured them that the generator would be in town on December 18.
The minister stated that her ministry had embarked on a drive to address the energy crisis, working assiduously with the Presidential Task Force, and stakeholders with a vision of providing reliable cost effective, sustainable, environmentally compliant energy to satisfy the present and future needs of all sectors in Sierra Leone through public and private sector partnership including international assistance.
The main approach, she said, “is through private sector partnership critical to meaningful economic growth for households, businesses and industries and to fulfil our political pledge”.
Haja Kabba maintained that a national policy framework would set out government’s emergency short term, medium term and long term goals and strategies; “as energy is a catalyst for economic growth and the mother of all infrastructures”.
The energy and power minister pointed out that, “I envisaged developing a policy document that will encourage Independent Power Providers (IPP) and a regulatory system that will allow the functioning of power generation, distribution and retailing in an independent manner”.
She maintained that, “ we must have an energy policy that plans for the future and meet the needs for today”, adding that, “our main long term source of energy will remain hydro and oil for the short and medium term, while other sources will be explored”.
The general manager of the National Power Authority (NPA) said, “electricity will be supplied to every household that has correct connection and transmission”.
He added that electricity would create jobs for the youth, and that maternal and mortality rates in the country would reduce and the standard of the people would increase.
The chairman of the Presidential Energy Emergency Task Force, Dr Lancelot Lake, urged the public to work with them and report all illegal matters to the ministry and pay their bills because “energy is a resource and it must be paid for”.
The deputy minister, Martin Bash-Kamara, also urged the public to work assiduously with ministry, adding that “electricity is a basic right and a priority”. He stated that, “we are poor because of we neglected electricity”.