Meanwhile, Sierra Leone’s minister of energy, Alhadji Kanja Sesay, has tendered his resignation.
The Press Nigeria understands that Sesay’s resignation comes amidst recent disruptions in the country’s electricity supply.
According to a statement from the president’s office on Friday, the specific reasons for Sesay’s resignation were not officially disclosed, and the energy ministry did not provide any comment in response to AFP’s request.
As per a press release from the presidency, the ministry will now be directly overseen by President Julius Maada Bio, with the assistance of two other officials.
Sesay’s resignation coincided with the government’s payment of $18.5 million to Turkish Karpowership and Transco-CLSG group, two power providers to whom Sierra Leone owed a total of $40 million.
It remains unclear whether Sesay’s resignation is directly linked to these payments. As reported in the media, power was restored in Freetown after a two-month period of outages following the announcement of the payments.
Karpowership, which has been supplying electricity to Sierra Leone through a floating offshore unit since 2018, recently reduced its capacity from 65 megawatts to just five due to payment issues.
“We are pleased to confirm that the electricity supply has returned to full capacity in Freetown,” the Turkish group said in a statement after the latest payment was announced.
