The capital city of Sierra Leone, Freetown, has been plagued by frequent blackouts, significantly undermining the city’s economic and social fabric. The country’s power infrastructure is antiquated and poorly maintained, leading to severe power outages and forced electricity rationing.
Blackout is a major problem in Freetown, and it has had a significant impact on residents’ lives and livelihoods. The most common consequence is the absence of energy for basic needs such as cooking, lighting, and water pumping. Citizens have to rely on Chinese lights and other improvised light sources, which become dangerous when coupled with the country’s lack of proper safety regulations. This state of affairs not only constitutes a health hazard to the population but also increases the risk of fire outbreaks.
In terms of economic activity, blackout poses a significant threat to businesses, leading to job losses and decreased productivity, significantly impacting urban development. The high cost of running generators, hiring guards to watch them, and replacing damaged or stolen equipment forces companies to reduce their operations, and the economy will suffer as a result. That high cost is also felt by consumers, who must pay more for goods and services as industries try to recoup their expenses.
Freetown’s power shortages impact the country’s infrastructure development negatively. A lack of proper electricity supply slows down construction projects and progress, further dragging down the economy by lowering the city’s worldwide appeal.
The constant power outages in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city, have hindered development and emphasized the country’s poor infrastructure. In line with that, Sierra Leoneans especially business people have called Bio to sack the above bosses. Citizens and businesses rely on expensive and hazardous makeshift lighting and power sources, driving up costs and increasing risks. The high cost of electricity also slows development, threatening to create a higher overall deficit. The Government of Sierra Leone must take a greater interest in addressing the country’s power crisis and finding alternatives to reduce a reliance on traditional means. Immediate and long-lasting remedies must be adopted to restore energy to the people and boost the economy.
Energy consumers drawn from mass private investments in Freetown and the surroundings have expressed serious dissatisfactions with government over the reversal pace in which power outage continues to affect their business. They believe it is a perpetual neglect for which they have resolved to take a legal action against the Ministry of Energy and the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA). Businesses including manufacturing industries and factories that are heavily relied on energy for their smooth operations shared their resentments on the state of the energy situation in the country and have decided to join others in also taking legal against government for depriving them from accessing energy.
Scores of hoteliers and others engaged in hospitality businesses in Freetown, where investments and private homes are currently faced with acute power outage under the watch of the much talk about sham ‘energy revolution,’ expressed their disappointments at the manner in which government is handling the electricity supply situation.
Speaking to one of the victims of power cut in Freetown, a restaurant manager Samuel Palmer Conteh said; ‘We are not comfortable doing our businesses under the current energy sector management of failed Minister Alhaji Ibrahim Kanja Sesay and the bungling Director General of (EDSA), Dr. Joe-Lahai Sormana. It is unimaginable that we buy, install and recharge prepaid meters for utility based of fair usage, but we hardly get power in our homes and business places as if we are recharging for blackout. These gross violations and abuses of our rights to energy are unacceptable. We shall soon seek legal redress by ways of taking action against the Ministry of Energy and EDSA management. We have all the rights to sue them to court for depriving us of our rights to access electricity supply,’ he said.
Another business owner Abdul Dassama, who spoke to this medium said; ‘With all the high killer energy tariffs we pay based on fair usage our businesses and homes are perishing in constant blackout. He observed that blackout and power outage have taken over regular power supply in Freetown. This, he said is something ‘we cannot continue to suppress anymore but to make a case for and our behalves in the court of law to get what deserve us as Sierra Leonean businesses and investments. We don’t have to endure with fabricated narratives of poor EDSA management and weak administration in the energy sector. That is not our business. All we are concerned about is the regular supplies of electricity to our homes and businesses rather than empty excuses. For all we know and have seen over the years with other mangers was that they provided us and our businesses with regular power supplies and not excuses of burnt transformers and copper cable theft by the very EDSA workers. We are no longer interested in listening to cooked up stories. We are in full tax compliances with revenue generation regulators. Whenever our taxes expire we are required to renew then immediately without excuses and if that is done on our part then there is no electricity supply to power our businesses then we will run at lost at the end of the day. So we are therefore calling on government and development to help us with permanent solutions to the energy challenges faced by the country with specific reference to Freetown and its surroundings.
Like other business operators who were engaged earlier by this medium, Santigie Sulaiman Fofanah, a vendor who trades in mobile phone accessories, power phones and power-banks at Manboreh Junction, Calaba Town, in the East of Freetown, divulged the difficulties associated with businesses amidst permanent power outage in his community. He exposes: “We take huge risks in all what we are doing as business people and end up running at lost. We recharge our prepaid meters but we don’t get power supplies as required by the laws of the country…”
At Banboreh Junction fast forwarding to Lower and Upper Allen Town, where light always comes in somehow selectively to the homes of those who are connected to the powers that be. For instance there is regular power supply at certain areas of Lower Allen Town, especially in the homes and the surrounding community of the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party-SLPP East District Chairman, Manso Dumbuya. In fact there can be light at his home and at the same time blackout or intermittent power supply in other areas in the same community, which is very much unfair. We have also noticed that his neighbourhood is the only area that gets electricity supply while others dwell in constant darkness. Fofanah added that the alarming energy cut situation has reached a peak that a slogan has been coined by residents of Lower and Upper Allan Town that refers to the SLPP East District Chairman as ‘EDSA for Manso Dumbuya.’ Residents of Allen Town observe that it seems as if EDSA regularly supply electricity to that part of Lower Allen Town only for Chairman Manso Dumbuya by way of giving him mere preference due to his political status.
An EDSA worker who has preferred anonymity, told FORUM NEWS that; ‘Most times we are urgently called by our bosses from Electricity House on Siaka Stevens and instruct us to switch on only the transfer that powers only Chairman Manso Dumbuya and his neighbours. We are always left with no options but to comply with the dictates of our superiors as ordinary workers but it is actually unfair to the rest of the community who end up suffering in darkness.’
However, considering the level of capital investment that has been done on the energy sector especially what goes to the Karpower Ship compared to growing poor performance of the sector is unbelievable. With these in mind and what seems to be on the lips of all and sundry is that government needs to restructure the sector starting with the replacement of political leadership at both the Ministry of Energy and at the EDSA because of their collective poor performance and failures to deliver regular power for the smooth operations of businesses and into private homes.
