“EDSA itself has not been able to generate the kind of revenue that is required, and the numbers are huge,” Sierra Leone’s minister of finance, has said.
Speaking during a recent Energy Roundtable Conference in Freetown, Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura disclosed that in the last five years his ministry has spent over One Hundred Million United State Dollars (USD $100m) to subsidize the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA).
“In the last five years, the ministry of finance has pumped over USD 100m to the sector in the form of cash subsidy.”
Added to the over USD100m cash subsidy provided to the energy sector in the last five years, the finance minister noted his ministry is also spending on the sector in the form of debt services which has cost the government over USD 40 million in the last five years and even giving out duty waivers to businesses in the sector.
According to the minister, that money could have gone to some important areas that the president wants to deliver on, adding that this is the challenge they are faced with and it is important they come out and speak about it because such an arrangement is not sustainable.
He emphasized the importance of energy in the transformation of a state, noting that it has to be gotten right.
According to the minister, achieving that involves spending a lot of money and that money has to be self-generated.
In recent weeks, Sierra Leoneans in Sierra Leone have had to endure a massive blackout because of this anomaly. Businesses and other essential services have been affected. The country can’t produce its own electricity and therefore rely on a Turkish ship whose services are coming in at snail-pace because of a huge debt owed them by the government.
