By Donu Kogbara
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio is racing to deliver 200 mini-grid installations before leaving office. © Omer Taha Cetin/Anadolu via AFP
Kandeh Yumkella, chair of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security says efforts to boost renewables and clean cooking have been fast-tracked, with a target of connecting four million new users within five years.
In his office in Freetown, Kandeh Yumkella, chair of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security in President Julius Maada Bio’s government, is outlining a plan to end his country’s crippling energy poverty.
“Since independence, we’ve been stuck with just 270 megawatts for a population of 8.5 million,” he says. “President Bio wants to change that – fast.”
Sierra Leone is among the most energy-poor countries in Africa. Only 36% of the population has access to electricity and outages are frequent, sometimes occurring several times within an hour.
Quick wins: restoring generators, scaling up solar
Clean cooking access is even more dire, with less than 1% of Sierra Leoneans using non-polluting fuels. Under President Bio, and with Yumkella at the helm, a new direction is taking shape – one that blends short-term recovery with long-term transformation.
You can’t grid the whole country overnight, but you can light up lives quickly with renewables
The government’s energy plan is built around short-, medium- and long-term phases. In the immediate term, efforts have focused on quick wins like restoring broken-down generators, reconnecting idle capacity and scaling up solar installations.
“We’re bringing back 25MW just from repair work,” Yumkella says. “That’s already happening.” By the end of this year, another 46MW of solar energy is expected to come online, followed by an additional 40MW in the first half of 2026. These will partly replace the country’s costly reliance on a Turkish floating power plant running on heavy fuel oil (HFO), supplying 50-60MW to Freetown at a steep $1.7m a month.
Cheaper power imports from Côte d’Ivoire
“We can’t afford that barge anymore,” Yumkella says. “It’s eating money meant for schools and hospitals.” The shift away from high-cost, high-emission sources is central to the plan. The government aims to triple capacity in Freetown within a year by combining repaired fossil plants with new solar projects and cheaper regional power imports from Côte d’Ivoire via the Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (CLSG) interconnector project.
Top of Form
Bottom of FormMedium-term plans include a 100MW gas-to-power plant financed by US partners. Scheduled to come online by 2027, it will provide much-needed baseload capacity and enable further reduction of HFO use. “Gas is part of the transition,” says Yumkella. He envisions Sierra Leone becoming a regional LNG hub by leveraging its deep-water ports to store and distribute fuel.
Empowering people in remote communities
Energy is not just about megawatts; it’s about human development. In remote communities, Yumkella’s team is pushing ahead with decentralised solutions – small solar mini-grids to power schools, clinics and agricultural processing.
“Some villages only need 100kW,” he says. “That’s enough to light homes, run a health centre and power a rice mill.”
With European Union funding, Sierra Leone was set to launch 50 mini-grid sites by the middle of this year, and Bio aims for 200 such installations before leaving office. “You can’t grid the whole country overnight,” Yumkella adds. “But you can light up lives quickly with renewables.”
The health sector is already seeing gains. Nearly 400 primary health care units have been solarised and Freetown’s Connaught Hospital recently switched on a dedicated 1MW system. “This is what energy access means: safe surgeries, functioning fridges for vaccines, better care.”
Kandeh Yumkella is the chairman of Sierra Leone’s Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security © Rights reserved
Perhaps the most ambitious part of the agenda is linked to Mission 300, an initiative that seeks global cooperation to bring power to 300 million Africans by 2030. Sierra Leone has a national compact to connect four million new users within five years and raise electrification from 36% to 80%.
Drafted in record time by a team led by Yumkella, it is backed by the World Bank, African Development Bank, Rockefeller Foundation and others. It carries a $3.6bn price tag.
“We didn’t wait for consultants,” says Yumkella. “We wrote it ourselves.”
Mission 300 compact
The plan includes two new national transmission corridors – north and south – to eliminate the grid’s current overreliance on a single east-west line. It also aims to scale up clean cooking access to 25%, through LPG distribution and solar cooking programmes. “This isn’t just a women’s issue,” he says. “It’s a public health and economic development issue.”
As a former UN energy czar, Yumkella has deep links with multilateral institutions. He says that trust and technical credibility have helped Sierra Leone punch above its weight in securing financing. But he’s quick to add: “Aid alone won’t solve this. We’re focused on attracting investment.”
This mindset is paying off. The Mission 300 compact is actively marketed to private partners, with the first billion dollars expected to be raised by early next year. Larger goals include powering mines and factories, and becoming a net exporter of energy to neighbours like Guinea. “We’re right in the middle of West Africa,” he says. “We have a geographic advantage. We can build here and sell in every direction.”
Aid alone won’t solve [our energy deficit]. We’re focused on attracting investment
Yumkella ran against Bio in 2018 and was an opposition leader in parliament. Now, he runs the energy portfolio for the president. “He told me, ‘Kandeh, I’m going to squeeze all that UN knowledge out of your head before you leave’.”
It’s clear this isn’t just a technical job; it’s a legacy project. “We’re building not just for today, but for the next generation. That’s what leadership is about.”
As Sierra Leone races to shed its status as one of Africa’s most energy-starved nations, Yumkella is determined to keep the pace. “Power is the foundation of everything, and now we finally have a plan.”
Source: Can Bio’s $3.6bn Mission 300 lift Sierra Leone out of energy poverty? – The Africa Report.com