Minister of Power Resigns Due to Electricity Crisis

According to an announcement from the president’s office, Alhadji Kanja Sesay, the Minister of Energy for Sierra Leone, tendered his resignation on Friday amidst ongoing challenges to the nation’s power grid.

The precise motivations behind Sesay’s decision to step down were not officially delineated, and despite efforts to seek clarification from the Ministry of Energy, no response was forthcoming to inquiries made by AFP.

In response to Sesay’s departure, the presidency revealed in a press release disseminated to AFP late Friday that the Energy Ministry would now fall directly under the oversight of President Julius Maada Bio. President Bio will be supported in this endeavor by two other designated officials, as outlined in the official communication.

The timing of Sesay’s resignation coincided with the disbursement of a substantial sum totaling $18.5 million to two key power providers, namely Turkish Karpowership and the Transco-CLSG group. However, any direct correlation between Sesay’s resignation and these financial transactions remains unclear.

Following the announcement of the payments, which came after a prolonged period of power outages lasting two months, reports emerged indicating the restoration of electricity in Freetown, as corroborated by an AFP journalist.

Karpowership, operating since 2018 as a vital electricity supplier to Sierra Leone through its offshore facility, had been facing operational constraints, notably reducing its capacity from 65 megawatts to a mere five due to unresolved payment issues. Expressing satisfaction at the recent developments, the Turkish entity issued a statement affirming the return of electricity to full capacity in Freetown following the receipt of the latest payment.