By Politico Staff Writer
The visiting Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Alice Albright has expressed her institution’s commitment to ensure there is reliable power in Sierra Leone. She made this statement on the 27th February 2023 upon arriving in the country.
“MCC is proud to continue our longstanding partnership with the people of Sierra Leone. Our planned investments, alongside key policy and institutional reforms in the country’s power sector, will facilitate more reliable power for all Sierra Leoneans”, said Albright who was received by US Ambassador David Reimer.
She said the compact will reflect MCC’s continued commitment to promoting resilient, long-term benefits to Sierra Leone’s economy, and that the $44.4 million threshold grant is to help improve access to clean water and electricity services within Freetown.
Speaking on investments made around the world, Albright said: “MCC has invested more than $9.5 billion with 24 countries in Africa, which are expected to benefit more than 90 million people,” said Albright.
She stated that: “over the next five years, MCC expects to sign new compact and threshold program agreements globally worth more than $4 billion, making MCC well positioned to fund significant contributions to tackling the climate crises.”
Albright accompanied by the US Ambassador also held discussions with the President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio on the progress made so far in respect of the country’s energy proposal.
President Bio expressed delight that the country continues to make progress on the benchmarks of the compact, and that he would want to see climate-resilient interventions drafted into the compact program. He said he would welcome it if both parties ‘’have some alignments on the priorities of the compact’’.
In her response, Albright said they were coming at a critical moment as the threshold reached years ago was nearing its end. She said they were ‘’excited about that with many admirable accomplishments’’.
Ambassador Reimer in his reaction said:’’ The MCC impact will become a very positive part of what the United States Embassy will be doing here in Sierra Leone for the next five years which is why we welcome this discussion’’.
In his statement, Energy Minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay said the country was pleased with the work and collaboration of the MCC, saying that the threshold program had deepened his Ministry's insight, increased its knowledge, and broadened its horizon.
He said the reforms that came with the threshold program helped the Government of Sierra Leone to set up priorities in the energy sector.
"Government's direct intervention in the energy sector has been huge. Considering the fact that energy is a capital-intensive enterprise, Government has been working with partners like the FCDO, World Bank, European Union, JICA, AfDB, and USTDA. We are massively impressed with these partnerships," he said.
The Minister of Energy gave an overview of the country's energy sector reforms and cataloged a variety of energy projects and potentials that were being implemented and explored or maximized.
He said the Compact Program resources would be very useful to the country and would help transform its energy landscape. He thanked the CEO for what he described as a historic visit and called on the MCC to continue to support Government's overall policy objective in the energy sector.
MCC's Sierra Leone Country Director, Steve Grudda, gave an update and upbeat assessment of the MCC's work in Sierra Leone.
The MCC and the Government of Sierra Leone have been working together to design a compact and have conducted several joint analyses of the country’s economy to identify the binding constraints to economic growth and potential opportunities for investments.
They have identified the power sector as the focus for the compact, and both teams are presently completing the project designs to address this challenge.
The delegation was here to conduct bilateral meetings to advance the nation’s compact grant program which aims to increase the availability of affordable and reliable electricity to satisfy demand among households, businesses, and institutions.
The MCC is an independent U.S. government development agency that was established in 2004, to reduce global poverty through economic growth.
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