World Bank Supervision Team Briefs Deputy Energy Minister I Austine Luseni
A team from the World Bank, led by its Senior Energy Specialist Paul Kagaba, has paid a courtesy call at the Electricity House in Freetown to update the Deputy Minister of Energy l, Dr. Eldred Taylor, on World Bank funded projects and to reiterate the bank’s commitment to supporting the country’s energy aspirations.
Paul Kagaba told the Deputy Minister of Energy (l ) that the team had paid what he described as a courtesy call because they wanted to have frank discussions with the Ministry of Energy on a variety of World Bank funded projects such as ESLEAP and RESPITE.
“Specifically, for ESLEAP, this project has been running for some time and has experienced budget shortfalls. So we are here to discuss how best we are going to reallocate some monies from certain components to other components,” he said, adding that they were also considering providing support to the mini grid domain.
Paul Kagaba went on to say that the World Bank had held discussions with relevant institutions and had explored areas of intervention including the 33KV line, noting that they had positively engaged EDSA on this.
“We are happy with the progress with respect to these projects and we are committed to continuing providing financial and technical support,” he concluded.
Chairman Energy Governance Coordination Group, EGCG, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, reckoned that the country was in an energy crisis and that stakeholders were not oblivious of the dire need to put mechanisms in place ahead of the critical period of the dry season.
He pleaded with the World Bank to continue to support the country’s energy sector, assuring that some concrete steps were being taken to prepare for the dry season.
In his remarks, Deputy Minister of Energy(I), Dr. Eldred Taylor, thanked the team for the visit, the frank and fruitful discussions.
He catalogued a number of projects that are currently being implemented and spoke about steps taken by the Ministry to improve EDSA’s financial and technical viability by connecting mining companies to the grid.
Director General of EDSA, Dr. Joe Lahai, spoke about the operations and challenges of EDSA and the World Bank projects.
He said EDSA was committed to scaling up nationwide access to electricity and commended the bank for its untiring support.