It was supposed to be a big deal. Kandeh Koleh Yumkella, Sierra Leone’s roving energy enthusiast and international dealmaker, stood before a room of nodding heads in Vienna earlier this year, making a grand, sweeping announcement that was set to revolutionize Sierra Leone’s energy and agriculture sectors: a promised $800 million to bolster the country’s energy infrastructure, spread green energy, and kickstart a sustainable future for Sierra Leoneans.
The future was looking bright, or so he told us.But fast-forward to the latest CRET 2024 (Conference on Renewable Energy Transitions), and Yumkella’s magic act seems to have lost its dazzle.
The $800 million showstopper was suddenly dwarfed by a meager $3 million in actual funds — a drop in the renewable energy bucket and more like an appetizer at a feast that was advertised to be grand.
Yumkella’s energy “commitment” was starting to look suspiciously like a mirage, and Sierra Leoneans are left wondering if he was all talk and no charge.Smoke and Mirrors on the Renewable Energy StageWhen Yumkella speaks, it’s hard not to get swept up. This is the man who paints Sierra Leone’s green-energy future in sweeping strokes.
But as the dust settles after the latest announcements, questions linger over how we went from that sky-high $800 million pledge to a comparatively paltry $3 million. Is this energy revolution running out of gas before it’s even started? Or was it all just hot air in the first place?Our own Sierra Leonean Ambassador to the UAE, Rashid Sesay, might be just as puzzled as the rest of us. Sesay’s recent meeting with Francesco La Camera, Director General of IRENA (the International Renewable Energy Agency), featured promises, potential, and — you guessed it — pledges to collaborate on Sierra Leone’s renewable energy dreams.
But with funding falling so dramatically short, it’s starting to look like Sierra Leone’s “green revolution” may need more than just words and diplomatic smiles to actually get off the ground.$800 Million?
More Like Wishful ThinkingWith global support apparently strong, Yumkella assured Sierra Leone that things were on track. And yet, here we are, with a six-megawatt solar park in Newton as our crowning achievement, a respectable but hardly groundbreaking step in a world where power grids need large, stable investments.
A six-megawatt installation won’t even begin to scratch the surface of what’s needed to lift Sierra Leone’s energy sector from its perpetual state of scarcity.It seems that while Yumkella was spinning dreams of international investment, the coffers were filling at a snail’s pace.
Did he genuinely believe the $800 million was just around the corner, or was he hoping we wouldn’t notice when it never showed up?Reality Check for Yumkella’s Aspirational VisionA dose of realism might be in order here. Sure, Yumkella’s optimism may have secured some positive press and a few hopeful photo ops. But as of now, it’s hard to take his grand promises seriously when the delivery is, to put it mildly, underwhelming.
The Sierra Leonean public is no stranger to empty promises, but this one came with an extra dose of “someday” that now feels more like “maybe never.”IRENA’s Francesco La Camera put it diplomatically, acknowledging the “potential” of Sierra Leone’s energy sector. But “potential” doesn’t keep the lights on.
Until Yumkella and his team can turn words into watts, many are left feeling that Sierra Leone’s renewable energy “revolution” is still very much on standby.
In Search of Real Power, Not Empty PromisesFor the Sierra Leonean people, it’s simple: we’re tired of promises that sound like they were lifted straight from a sales pitch.
We need real energy, not phantom millions conjured up for conference clout.And while the renewable energy spotlight is bright and seductive, Yumkella might want to temper his ambition with some down-to-earth, no-nonsense funding plans — ones that actually deliver results, rather than numbers that only look impressive on paper.
