By Politico staff writer
The Ministry of Energy is set to benefit from Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) projects.
This was disclosed by the Country Programs Manager of GEAPP, Naomi Wagura during a courtesy call on the Energy Minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay in Freetown.
She expressed her Alliance's commitment to contributing to Sierra Leone's burgeoning energy space and that it is one of nine countries where GEAPP was going to roll out its projects, noting that they had used the past couple of months to solicit in-country support from many partners.
Wagura informed the minister that the alliance has secured the support it was soliciting. GEAPP with a regional hub in Nairobi, Kenya, was launched last year and is now being funded by three different foundations.
GEAPP's Sierra Leone's Project Consultant, Jasmin Roberts, said she had done some groundwork to foster collaboration with the government and other partners.
In his remarks, the energy minister welcomed the team to Sierra Leone and said that the country was now an investment-friendly one in every aspect of development.
Sesay said he was delighted to learn that Sierra Leone was going to benefit from a good number of GEAPP's initiatives and assured of his ministry’s readiness to provide them with the necessary support and partnership.
He briefed the delegation, on the many capital-intensive energy projects that the Government of Sierra Leone and other private partners have undertaken and said he was looking forward to seeing GEAPP massively invest in the energy space in the country.
The Communications Specialist in the ministry of energy, Austine Luseni pointed out that the projects Sierra Leone stands to gain from GEAPS would be a free gesture due to what he referred to as the philanthropic work it has been doing in the energy sector in Africa. He said the energy alliance is expected to mainly focus on the country’s hydro systems.
He pointed out that, Sierra Leone has more than ten (10) hydro potentials like the Guma Valley, Dodo, Bumbuna II, and the mini-grid which he said are very expensive to construct, but was hopeful that with the intervention of GEAPP, it will be a thing of the past. He reiterated that GEAPP could also come in and cushion the tariff sector that he said has been very high, to help the ordinary Sierra Leonean.
GEAPP seeks to change energy for good and to alter the trajectory of the climate crisis. They and their partners are investing $10 billion in Africa.
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