The Sierra Leone Minister of Energy, Kanja Sesay, resigned on Friday, a few hours after the country paid off some of the debt it owed its Turkish energy providers.
Under Mr Sesay tenure, the country owed its energy providers, Turkish Karpowership a total of $48 million and Transco-CLSG group whose total sum owed has yet been confirmed.
The Turkish Karpowership, which is the biggest floating power plant operator in the world, has been supplying electricity to the country’s capital, Freetown, since 2018 but cut off power from the country in September due to the debt.
The Karpowership disclosed last week that it had reduced the electricity supply to the country from 60 megawatts to 6 megawatts because of the unpaid bills.
However, Mr Sesay while resigning said he took full responsibility for the crisis that rocked the country.
Following the minister’s resignation, the office of the President Julius Maada Bio, revealed that the energy ministry would be under the supervision of the President and two other officials.
Also, the President announced in a statement that $17 million from the debt had been paid, adding that it had also paid $1.5 million to TRANSCO-CLSG, who provided power to the south and east side of the country.
Meanwhile, after the president announced the payments, power was restored back to the country’s capital after months of power outage.
