By Mustapha Ezekiel Dumbuya
The Director General, Mr Abu Kamara, from the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) said that some MDAs have owed them (Le334,863,313,000) during the on-going budget hearing on Thursday 29th September, 2022 at the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall in Freetown.
He explained that EDSA is currently working with the Ministry of Finance to see if they can pay those monies from the budget the Ministry will allocate to them for 2023 adding that they cannot disconnect them like that because some provide essential services to the people like Hospitals, Guma Valley Water Company, State House and so on.
According to him, he also said that there is a need to invest in excess infrastructure to the electricity sector for efficiency and service delivery.
Mr Kamara continued that some under ground cables are almost 60 years old and they cannot meet the population demand because EDSA is putting a lot of demand and pressure on the infrastructure and the infrastructure does not have any more ability to carry.
He also said that a lot of people have migrated to Freetown where businesses are expanding and to support such business activities, there must be a robust infrastructure thereby thanking the World Bank as well as other development partners for their support.
According to him, he said that there is a massive illegal electricity extractions across Sierra Leone especially in the Western Area Rural and Urban and that some EDSA staff unfortunately connive with people to execute such act.
He advised that end-users should always pay their bills and also abstain from illegal electricity extractions. He furthered that if anyone thinks his/her meter is faulty, then let him/her visit EDSA office for the problem to be fixed up with free of cost.
The Director noted that EDSA has generated over 60 Billion old Leones from January to August this year adding that they can do more if people abstain from illegal electricity extractions, which have been disturbing their revenue generation.
He ended that with the help of World Bank and some development partners, there is a lot of work ongoing which focus on increasing and improving electricity connections right across Sierra Leone.
