One of the issues surrounding the Turkish Karpowership is the negotiation of its utility grid infrastructure and electricity supply agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) since 2018.

According to sources close to the Ministry of Energy, while agreement between the GoSL and Karpowership will end in June, the government is pushing for a six-month agreement that will save the government more money, Karpowership is allegedly pushing for a five-year agreement that will cost the government US$300 million.

The government is unwilling to go into such agreement with the Turkish Karpowership, sources said, adding that Sierra Leone has to pay US$90 million between January and June and by the end of the contract, the country would have paid a colossal amount of US$300 million. The government is reluctant to endorse the agreement because it has repaired the two generators at Kingtom and Blackhall Road in Freetown with the help of the Japanese Government, which

will pump in 10 megawatts. But what has baffled many concerned Sierra Leoneans is that despite the agreement between the government and Karpowership ends in June, there is marked reduction in generation capacity that is causing incessant outages in Freetown, while some senior officials want the government to accept the five-year agreement Karpowership has proposed

. “Some of these government officials have been benefiting greatly from the questionable agreements between the government and Karpowership over the supply of electricity supply to Freetown,” our sources claimed, noting that had it not been the appointment of Hon. Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella as the Energy Sector Lead, who is working assiduously to sanitize the energy sector, the five-year agreement proposed by Karpowership would have been accepted by nefarious government officials who had benefited immensely from the alleged skewed agreements.

Meanwhile, the Energy Sector Lead, Hon. Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, who believes that the ongoing payments to Karpowership could have transformed Sierra Leone’s energy landscape, is very much determined to uncover the truth behind the energy contracts and their financial implications.