Energy Access is Now 36% From 16% in 2018-VP Juldeh Jalloh

By Marilyn King
Speaking at the Climate Resilience and Energy Transition (CRET) dialogue meeting at the Bintumani Conference Center in Freetown, Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh stated that access to energy is now 36% as against 16% in 2018.
“Our country’s energy transformation journey started in 2018. When we came to power in 2018, energy access in this country was 16%. Today, it stands at 36% which is almost halfway to reach Mission 300,” VP Juldeh Jalloh emphasized.
VP Juldeh maintained that access to energy remains the most viable accelerator to growth in Sierra Leone adding that addressing the energy needs include organizing and expanding the infrastructure most of the recommendations singled out during the dialogue.
He stated that reducing commercial lost, improving sector financial viability, and increased renewable generation can address access to energy.
“As government embarks on improving the productive sector, including mining, one key consideration is how we ensure this production also meet our climate change objectives,” he stated.
He said that one way to do that is to ensure that the energy powering agricultural development, mining, tourism, and industrial hope is low carbon energy and that it is climate resilient and can support the green economy.
He cautioned that access to energy cannot be a luxury and that as a government, they must be intentional of making energy available to not only businesses but households to ensure that no one is left behind.
He noted that improved education and health outcome can only be great equalizer when citizens have access to reliable and affordable energy that meets the most-hard to reach communities wherever they are.
Energy therefore, is the gateway to the economic transformation that Sierra Leone is poised to embark on and it will no doubt catalysed production, drive value addition and creates jobs, he affirmed.