The Government of Sierra Leone is working very hard to transform the country’s energy sector, Vice President of the West African nation, H.E Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has said.
According to him, the government views the energy sector as critical to the transformation of the country’s economy and is, therefore, trying its best to transform the energy sector.
He said since President Dr Julius Maada Wonie Bio’s administration assumed office in 2018, it has done a lot, acknowledging, however, that more work needs to be done.
“A couple of years ago, when we assumed power in 2018, one of the key sectors that the Sierra Leone government wanted to transform was the energy sector…As a government that wants to open up its sectors, country, attract Foreign Direct Investment, boost the productive sector, it is but very important that we focus and invest enormously in the energy sector. We have been doing that progressively under the leadership of the energy minister.”
Dr Juldeh Jalloh said these when he led a delegation comprising Minister for Energy, Alhaji Kanja, to visit Ghana Grid Company, the power transmission company in the Republic of Ghana.
“When we came in, the energy level in Sierra Leone was 16 per cent, today, three years down the line, we are 31 per cent down the line and we know that we still need to do more…we are eligible for a compact in 2020 and we realised that Ghana is in the second compact so we are in Ghana to share experiences with our Ghanaian colleagues particularly in the energy sector. We are here to learn from some of the excellent work you have been doing and also to take cognisance of the challenges and how you managed to some of those challenges,” he explained.
Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Grid Company, Ebenezer Essienyi, on his part, said his outfit is ready to assist and guide the Sierra Leonean delegations to learn in the energy sector.
He assured his guests of bringing to bear the challenges Ghana faced, how it resolved the situation and how to maintain their grids for a stabilized energy sector.
“It’s much pleasure to welcome you for us to engage on ways and means for Sierra Leone to learn the lessons that we have gone through in our power sector so that you don’t make the mistakes we did. We are ready to guide you in any aspect of our works. The traps that we fell in, what we learnt and what we must do going forward. Then also, based on our knowledge of the industry for you, based on the Transco CLG project and the need for you to acquire the knowledge in terms of planning, maintenance, we are ready. You just need to call upon us and we will gladly come and assist your team in setting things up,” he stated.
The Sierra Leone Vice President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, and his delegations took a tour to GRIDCo smaller II and SCC to familiarize themselves with how GRIDCo operates.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com