SIERRA LEONE‘S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

# **Box 1. Landmark completion of the Bumbuna Power Plant**

Thirty years after construction began, a hydroelectric power station at Bumbuna, in Northern Province, about 200 km north-east of Freetown, was finally commissioned on November 6th, 2009. The dam and a 200-km transmission line linking the Bumbuna plant with Freetown were financed mainly by donors. The power station initially provided around 20 megawatts of power in a test phase from September 2009, and this was increased to the station‘s full rainy-season capacity of 50 megawatts in November (capacity will probably be less than 20 megawatts in the dry season). Contingent upon additional investment, Bumbuna‘s capacity can be increased to as much as 300 megawatts over the next few years, providing a much needed boost for Sierra Leone‘s power sector. The government expects that the dam, which has cost over $200 million so far, will save over $2 million per month on diesel imports alone, as businesses and residences switch over from diesel generators. The government says that the Bumbuna plant will provide cheap, reliable power, improving the business environment and supporting economic growth and poverty reduction. The new plant, along with the recent offshore oil discovery, signals a bright new era in the country‘s dismal energy-sector performance.

The dam‘s past includes a history of corruption, stealing of power cables, and delayed construction due to civil unrest, particularly during the 1991–2002 war. Successive governments had promised and failed to finish the project, so its completion is a big political success, a landmark development and a sign of progress after years of war and underinvestment. Nevertheless, Sierra Leone has far to go before power generation will be sufficient to make a tangible positive impact on economic growth and human development.

_Source_ : Adapted from EIU 2009.

**Figure 4. Substantial reduction in the costs of power production**

<!-- Start of picture text --> 45<br>40<br>35<br>30<br>25<br>20<br>15<br>10<br>5<br>0<br>US cents per KwH<br>Mali Niger Sierra Leone (2001-07) Congo Benin Cape Verde Cameroon Rwanda Sierra Leone (2009-10) Burkina Faso Madagascar Kenya Tanzania Chad Ghana Senegal Namibia Cote d'Ivoire Lesotho Mozambique Uganda Zimbabwe Nigeria Malawi Ethiopia DRC Zambia South Africa Botswana<br><!-- End of picture text --> Source: Briceño-Garmendia and Shkaratan 2010.

Measures to improve revenue collection have been undertaken in recent months. Two specific measures include installing pre-paid meters that ensure payment collection for power used and contracting with banks for collection of revenues, facilitating payments for customers. These improvements are major steps in changing a culture of non-payment of bills.

The government has placed a strong emphasis on improving the decrepit power infrastructure to bolster growth and create jobs. Numerous reforms have been planned under the country‘s credit facility (ECF, formerly known as the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) effort of the IMF). Under this new impetus to reform infrastructure, the government has placed emphasis on improving the financial 14