BY Andrew Keili
Much has been said recently about the MCC compact. Some say it is the solution to all our electricity problems. Others say it is merely being used as leverage by the American Government to keep a tight rein on the Bio Government to take electoral reform seriously. I recently read something from a detractor that said- “Bo una lef we. MCC money na poyo money.” MCC is now almost as much in our political lingo as the misunderstood or rather the “over-understood” Tripartite.
I can quite understand why people read into the meaning of everything in our poisoned political atmosphere but won’t be tempted to go down that route. I recently made a modest investment on a solar system for my house and was accused of complicity in the EDSA blackout problem. During the period when Karpower withheld its services for some two weeks, some young men in my area who are my friends accused me of having foreknowledge of the blackout problem. They had apparently witnessed the solar panels being transported and had formed an opinion, remarking- “Way u see Pa Keili buy solar, mos know say in padi den na govament don tell am say den get for cam hot light. As we see den bring di solar, we tok say dis bete nor day for we again.”-for natin bad name! This reminds me of when my company was put in charge of the National Power Authority (NPA) in 2000 for some two and half years. After we had made some modest improvement in the electricity situation, some politician introducing President Kabbah at a Miatta conference centre function decided to boast- “If you want electricity, vote SLPP!”. The lights immediately went off and he went into a rage- “Dis na sabotage!”, he barked out.
Truth be told, we have made some progress over the years with the electricity situation to increase access to 35%. We have been talking about electricity sector reform for well over a quarter of a century. As early as 2000 we were talking about bringing in a boat like Karpower, anchored at sea to provide temporary power whilst we gradually increased generation from Kingtom. Who said that? Yours truly, when I appeared on radio as a member of the NPA management team. Unfortunately, my own boat did not arrive! Bumbuna had featured into the scheme of things for a few decades before this. I recall we used to attend meetings to resuscitate the Bumbuna project at the AfDB in Abidjan. We were involved in the formulation of the first Energy Policy for Sierra Leone which was sponsored by UNECA around 2004 which was followed by another in 2009.
Several plans have been drawn up for the sector including a sector roadmap. Privatization of the sector was recommended as early as 2002. The rationale provided then is as true as it is today. NPA had four crises-1. Capital crisis–NPA’s financial performance is very unhealthy and the money needed to maintain the current operations is not within the reach of government. 2. Performance Crisis-Inadequate power supply and weaknesses in the distribution system are attributable to its deteriorating financial position, poor accountability etc. 3. Access crisis- Private sector participation will be able to provide the impetus to make electricity more readily available to the population. 4. Cost burden to government -Government was heavily subsidizing the sector.
A considerable amount of money has been spent on the sector by various donors and by government but we haven’t had value for money with the “bandage approach” to the electricity problem. The sector has been unbundled and over this period we have had several management contracts only to revert to normal when the contractors leave. The Energy Ministry must have the largest turnover of Ministers! Let me list them from President Kabbah’s time-Emmanuel Grant, Paolo Conteh, Momodu Koroma, Hafsatu Kabbah, Lloyd During, Ogunlade Davidson, Henry Macauley, Oluniyi Robbin-Coker, Kanja Sesay (longest serving), President Bio (temporarily standing in).
So what makes the MCC compact different? This will be the first time that sufficient money will be pumped into the sector to address its binding constraints. It will also be accompanied by a significant reform package and a water tight project implementation plan. The project is based on sound feasibility studies that have involved all relevant stakeholders in the sector nationally. The government through its effective and articulate Minister of Information and several other people has done a good job of publicizing what is involved with the MCC compact.
We know that for generation, another turbine at Bumbuna will double the power from 50MW, and that coupled with a nationwide Utility-scale Solar PV Project, there will be a substantial increase in generated power. We know that with new transmission line corridors added to and interlinked with the existing Bumbuna to Freetown and CLSG corridors, we will finally have the backbone of the much required national grid to enable power to be taken all over the country. Money will be spent on rehabilitating the moribund distribution system and also extending it to far-out places. Power provision will be targeted to productive areas for agriculture, mining etc. A National Dispatch Centre will be constructed to support the sector to manage the transmission network more effectively. This will ensure that as the energy becomes more complex with the expansion of the grid and increased participation of IPPs, the network is managed to balance generation and demand to ensure network stability. Through the MCC project the Ministry of Energy and associated institutions like EDSA, EGTC and EWRC will be made to better respond to the long term requirements of the sector by being reformed.
MCC’s infrastructure investments will allow much greater levels of electricity throughput, meeting a peak demand 5-6 times greater than the current peak.Baseload energy that is currently stuck in the vicinity of Freetown will be able to move throughout the country.
It will be foolhardy to expect that this will be the only game in town. Complementary projects for electricity by various donors and various other initiatives like those being promoted by the Kandeh Yumkella-led Presidential Initiative on Climate Change (PI-CREF) will further bolster the sector. What the MCC does is to provide the cornerstone on which all other initiatives are anchored-a kind of angularis fundamentum.
While we applaud government for getting the MCC compact, we should also applaud those who have been instrumental in getting us thus far. Ministers of Energy in the previous political dispensation set the ball rolling. The team at the Sierra Leone Compact Development Unit (SLCDU), headed by the highly competent and effective Ndeye Sesay Koroma should be singled out for the stellar work they have done in various phases of the compact to get us where we are. The Constraints Analysis (CA) they conducted with MCC as part of the process identified four key constraints to economic growth in Sierra Leone as access to electricity, food insecurity, access to water and general WASH services and health. Electricity was determined to be most binding constraint. Their root cause analysis conducted of the electricity constraint concluded that: “Sierra Leone has insufficient availability of affordable and reliable electricity to satisfy demand among households, businesses, and social institutions.” They also superintended over work on the Feasibility studies. The Office of the Vice President should also be commended for providing the political leadership required. The VP’s office also attained similar success in getting us stellar results with the EITI. The Energy Ministry has been lambasted of late. However, I am aware of the hands-on leadership provided by the former Minister Kanja Sesay in getting his Ministry to cooperate and participate in the feasibility studies for this project. Various technical staff from EDSA, EGTC and EWRC also cooperated under very difficult circumstances.
Notwithstanding the success with the compact, it is necessary that the government fully embraces the reform that comes with the MCC project. Some of these will involve root and branch changes in the Energy Ministry ’s technical set up and in the various institutions especially EDSA, EGTC and EWRC over the five-year life of the compact. It is hoped that the political will for reform will remain undiminished and that people with the right skill sets spearhead these reforms. There should be no sacred cows with the reforms required and the public, especially those illegally abstracting electricity and institutions doing so will be expected to cooperate.
The MCC will help us with our dire energy poverty situation in Sierra Leone. But how bad is it? Our current annual electricity use in Sierra Leone is ˜67 kWh/capita– one of the lowest levels in the world. Sierra Leone’s Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) calls for 2035 per capita consumption in Sierra Leone of just over 280 kWh/capita. If the IRP is completely successful, per capita electricity use in Sierra Leone in 2035 will still remain only around 20-50% of expected consumption levels in Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana.
The energy poverty situation landed me in a pickle when I attended an energy conference in Egypt whilst at NPA. The facilitator was asking participants about the total installed power in their countries, but then he ended by saying- “Of course, if you have less than 100 MW, you should not even talk about having electricity.” I hurriedly made my way to the bathroom and only reappeared after the round of questioning, as Sierra Leone had less than that! I muttered to myself-“Nor cam capsai me bongo na ya!”
Let us all hope that the MCC proceeds unhindered. Actually this much talked about MCC compact is a case of “Much ado about something.”
Ponder my thoughts.
