By Mohamed Pope Kamara
National Deputy Publicity Secretary (APC)
16-Dec-2025
The revelation by Energy Minister Cyril Arnold Grant that Sierra Leone owes nearly $100 million to electricity suppliers isn’t just a statement of account; it’s a damning indictment of the Bio-led SLPP government’s catastrophic failure in one of the most fundamental areas of national development. This admission, framed as a defense against accusations of reckless spending, instead exposes a regime that has allowed the country’s power sector to collapse into a vortex of debt and dysfunction, with the prospect of leaving citizens in the dark and the nation’s finances in peril.
A Staggering Debt Burden: Minister Grant’s breakdown of the debt is a catalog of failure: approximately $50 million owed to Karpowership, a crucial Turkish provider, another $20 million to a separate foreign supplier, and additional millions to solar companies and the government of Guinea for electricity. This aligns with World Bank data showing debts to private power producers soaring from $70.6 million to $91 million in just seven months. The Minister’s attempt to deflect blame onto “unpatriotic” citizens and electricity theft is a transparent abdication of responsibility. A government’s primary duty is to govern, to establish functional systems, enforce laws, and collect revenue. After years in power, blaming systemic theft for a near-$100 million crisis is an admission of administrative incompetence.
From Promise to Peril. This financial debacle is the direct outcome of years of mismanagement. The SLPP government inherited energy projects and secured over $200 million in funding from international partners for sector reforms and projects, including the CLSG interconnection and MCC programs. Yet, the result is not progress, but profound regression. The government has failed to build upon previous foundations, opting instead for what critics call political ego and deviation from workable plans.
The consequences are measured in more than dollars. They are seen in the intermittent blackouts plaguing Freetown and the resurgence of electricity challenges that severely impact daily life and businesses. They are tragically evident in the electrical fires that have gutted buildings, including the State House itself, a symbol of a system so dangerously out of control that it threatens the very seat of government. Minister Grant’s bleak admission that providing 24-hour electricity to the population is currently “impossible” encapsulates this surrender to failure.
Sierra Leoneans deserve better; they are watching and taking notes of this irresponsible display of incompetence. The $100 million debt is not merely a line item; it is the price of a broken promise. It represents a government that has mortgaged the country’s future without delivering the basic infrastructure of modernity. The Energy Minister’s statement, intended to calm political headaches, has instead diagnosed a terminal illness in the SLPP’s governance, a profound inability to translate funding and opportunity into light, power, and progress for the people of Sierra Leone.