Sierra Leone’s Energy Minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, has tendered his resignation letter to the president after power outages hit the nation’s capital for 10 days.
The sector minister on April 26, said he finds it embarrassing to be in office while the nation’s capital is without power for 10 days, affecting businesses.
“It was so embarrassing to me that for 10 days there was no power in Freetown because Karpowership had shut down,” he stated.
Turkish power company, Karpowership, has been supplying power to Freetown. However, the Sierra Leone government’s US$48 million debt to Karpower has affected its operations, which forced the power supplier to pull the plugs which threw Freetown and other areas into darkness for days.
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The Energy Minister revealed that the last time the government made a payment towards the debt owed to Karpowership was in July 2023.
He expressed that Karpowership’s decision affected both him and his businesses which led to his decision to step down and allow someone else to take over.
“The power situation was affecting lives and businesses and people were complaining,” he said.
The Minister also questioned why Ghana’s debt of about US$ 1.8 billion to Karpower has not resulted in the same treatment as Sierra Leone.
A few hours after Alhaji Kanja had resigned, the government paid $17 million to Karpowership to settle part of the debt.
President Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio appointed Alhaji Kanja Sesay as the Minister of Energy, and he was approved by the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic on May 4.
