By Tilly Barrie
Director of Energy in the Ministry of Energy and Power has told a validation workshop for the ECOWAS energy access investment programme in Freetown that the government is planning to increase access to electricity across the country.
Benjamin Kamara said that to bring into operation the ambitious target set out in the ECOWAS White Paper, each member state was tasked with the responsibility of setting up institutional frameworks responsible for increasing access to modern energy services, including establishing a multi-sectoral committee that would allow for the involvement of all sectors and not only those in the energy sector.
Head of Energy and Environment at the United Nations Development Programme, Saskia Marijnissen said that in 2009 their regional office commissioned an assessment to identify the capacity building needs of ECOWAS member states with a view to ensuring improved access to energy services for rural and urban population.
She said the report had four key recommendations which she listed as "Institutional support for access to energy services, strengthened human resources, establishment of national multi-sectoral group and the development of an energy access investment programmes”. She went on that with the lack of adequate investments and an insufficient private sector participation in energy development initiatives the government was faced with a challenge to increase and diversify access to modern energy services for all, especially in rural and peri-urban areas.
Deputy Minister of Energy, Martin Bash Kamara agreed that access to modern electricity services in rural Sierra Leone was among the lowest in Africa but with the highest electricity tariff on the continent.
“Rural people use charcoal, firewood and kerosene for lighting their homes and cooking their food. Often these have negative consequences on their environment and their quality of life”, he said, adding that in February 2011, the country held its inaugural meeting of multi stakeholders’ group on access to modern energy services.
The meeting established that public or private investment was very low in the energy sector, especially the much-needed investment in solar energy.
(C) Politico 10/12/13
