By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, PhD
New developments have occurred last week in London relating to the United States-backed corporation, Milele Energy. The company’s two American executives, Erik Granskog and Jay Ireland have suddenly resigned from the company.
This sudden and questionable resignation of Erik Granskog and James Ireland comes shortly after the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which is the “US Government’s development finance institution,” announced a US$412 million energy loan issued to Sierra Leone through Milele Energy and its corporate partner, TCQ Power Limited.
In public communication documents, the DFC and the US Embassy in Sierra Leone often present Milele Energy as an independent Kenyan-based power generation company, failing to reveal complete details of the company’s profile and real ownership; details that are required to enable public scrutiny of Milele Energy’s track record and whether it has a proven capacity to deliver on its contractual responsibilities.
We previously published corporate documents showing that Milele Energy was incorporated in England on May 10, 2023, under the United Kingdom’s Companies Act 2006 as a “private company in England and Wales.”
The registered executive officers of Milele Energy were two American citizens, Erik Grankskog and Jay Ireland (who have now resigned) and two British citizens, Gautam Shadev and Pranav Khamar, and a South African national, Viloshan Govender, who reportedly resides in the United Kingdom.
Milele Energy’s corporate shareholders include the Gemcorp Fund (GP) Limited, a company registered in George Town, Cayman Islands, holding the majority 80% shares in Milele Energy; Verkanda LLC registered in Delaware, US, also holding 10% shares in Milele Energy; JWI III LLC also registered in Delaware, US, holding 5% shares in Milele Energy; and Empower Africa Consulting Limited registered in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, holding 5% shares in Milele Energy.
On April 17, 2023, about one month after its incorporation, Milele Energy Limited withdrew its significant control (PSC) in the company and transferred all its majority 80% shares to a newly formed subsidiary company, Milele Topco Limited, also incorporated in England four days earlier on April 13, 2023.
Corporate records also show that three Milele Energy executive officers are simultaneously listed as executives of Milele Topco Limited. These individuals are the South African national Viloshan Govender; and his two British counterparts: Pranav Khamar and Gautam Shadev. Interestingly enough, Gemcorp Fund (GP) Limited is also listed as the exclusive 100% shareholder of Milele Topco Limited, the newly incorporated subsidiary company.
In addition to the above, the executive directors of both Milele Energy and Milele Topco Energy are the same individuals serving as registered executives of Milele Green Energy Limited, a third company also incorporated on 10 March 2023, around the same time as the two other Milele subsidiary companies.
For several months now, we have been asking crucial questions regarding the surreptitious manner through which Milele Energy and the Americans usurped the corruption-infested Western Area Power Generation Project. The US Embassy in Freetown and officials of the DFC have ignored these questions. They have instead embarked on a propaganda campaign designed to deceive Sierra Leoneans by falsely claiming that the United States is offering a gift of US$480 million to boost Sierra Leone’s energy sector; this is not a gift, but rather a loan. They have been using the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to dodge scrutiny over the questionable acquisition of the Western Area Power Generation Project since 2021.
For those who may not be aware: the Western Area Power Generation Project has been in the news for about 15 years now. The World Bank Group and other development finance agencies have used the same project to set up hundreds of millions of dollars in loan to Sierra Leone between 2013 and 2018.
In March 2018, Ernest Bai Koroma, former president of Sierra Leone, organized a launching ceremony at Kissy Dockyard, in east Freetown to announce the “construction of an electricity power plant.” Koroma and British corporate executives announced that the energy power plant will electrify Freetown and its environs under a 20-year power purchase agreement that was corruptly awarded to British companies. The 20-year non-transparent power purchase agreement was signed between EDSA and CEC Africa and TCQ Power Limited.
TCQ Power, CEC Africa, Globeleq, BB Energy, Watsilla, and the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) were among the multitude of multinational corporations that were involved in the loan arrangements relating to the corruption-infested energy project, prior to Maada Bio’s assumption of power in 2018. The loans and insurance guarantees were arranged by the World Bank Group (including the IDA and MIGA), and other development finance agencies.
On assuming office, Maada Bio instituted several Commissions of Inquiry into Koroma’s administration, especially the Koroma regime’s handling of the Sierra Leone economy. The investigation discovered, among other things, that the Western Area Power Generation Project was one of the “ghost infrastructure and service-related projects” used by the Koroma administration to accumulate unexplained wealth during the APC’s tenure in office. The staggering discoveries involved many of the top-ranking cabinet officials of the APC regime and several of Koroma’s friends within the diplomatic community in Freetown. These damning discoveries led to transnational conversations and negotiations involving diplomats, international banking officials, and regional politicians (we will go into the murky details in due course).
But what did Maada Bio and his SLPP colleagues do with the findings of their anti-corruption inquiries, including details relating to the Western Area Power Generation Project and other similar “ghost development projects?” What happened to the multinational corporations, the international banking institutions, and the development finance agencies who were involved in the earlier power purchase agreements and the millions in debts accumulated in the name of the Western Area Power Generation Project? What happened to CDC and Globeleq’s stake in the Western Area Power Generation Project? How did Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) feature in these developments, and what benefits did ACC derive from the Koroma-era energy investigations and negotiations? Most importantly, how are these developments related to Maada Bio’s infamous and expensive trip to Lebanon in August 2020?
The above-mentioned questions still remain unanswered. The transactional and financial details they point to are also unknown to the majority of Sierra Leoneans. Yet on 18 June 2024, DFC’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Nisha Biswal, and the US Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Bryan David Hunt, joined Maada Bio and SLPP politicians at a launching ceremony held at Kissy Dockyard in Freetown to announce that the more than 15-year-old Western Area Power Generation Project, with its questionable development history, has now become a Nant Energy Project, sponsored by Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited.
At the launching ceremony, Nisha Biswal and Bryan Hunt repeated the decade-old promise that the Western Area Power Generation Project, which they have now named Nant Energy, “would double Sierra Leone’s energy capacity and address…access to reliable energy infrastructure.” Biswal and Hunt also claimed that “construction project is now beginning and is expected to reach completion in 36 months.”
Since that event, there has been no evidence that any such construction has started in Kissy. Instead, a few weeks ago, the same diplomats and corporate executives announced that they have now given a US$480 million grant to Sierra Leone from the MCC to “help fund Sierra Leone’s electricity sector.” Meanwhile, they haven’t explained how Milele Energy took over the said energy project, nor have they explained how DFC officials arrived at issuing US$412 million the loan to Milele Energy on behalf of Sierra Leone? Most importantly, they have not even told Sierra Leoneans what happened to the US$412 million debt/gift issued to Sierra Leone through Milele Energy? There are many questions to be answered about whether this is a gift or a loan, even though most evidence suggests it is a loan.
While these questions remain unanswered, the non-transparent DFC debt issued to Milele Energy remains hanging like a lyncher’s noose on the necks of present and future generations of Sierra Leoneans. Worse, the Americans who signed onto the debts on behalf of Sierra Leoneans have now resigned from the company without explanation.
We must recall that in June 2024, US Ambassador Bryan David Hunt told Sierra Leoneans that Milele Energy and TCQ Power “will revolutionize Sierra Leone’s energy landscape” and that their impacts “will be profound, fueling progress, prosperity, and a brighter future for all Sierra Leoneans.” Hunt’s optimistic words echoed those of the DFC and Hunt’s own counterparts in the State Department, as well as the corporate executives of Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited, the two reported recipients of the US$412 million DFC loan.
During the launching ceremony, Milele Energy’s Erik Granskog promised to “deliver sustainable power solution to the people of Sierra Leone,” saying that he was now looking “forward to executing the construction.”
However, what Hunt and Granskog failed to disclose at the time are crucial details on fundamental questions that every Sierra Leonean should be asking today. These questions include the following: why has the name of the Western Area Power Generation Project been suddenly changed to Nant Energy Project? What happened to the alleged construction work launched at the Kissy Dockyard by Ernest Bai Koroma in March 2018 for the construction of the same electricity power plant? What happened to the earlier power purchase agreements and electricity supply contracts signed with TCQ Power, CEC Africa Limited, Glolebeleq, BB Energy, Watsiila, and the CDC? Where does the current Nant Energy arrangement and power purchase agreements leave CECA (Sierra Leone) Limited and its subsidiary CECA (Sierra Leone) Generation Limited?
Most essentially, how did DFC and Milele Energy take over the Western Area Power Generation Project? What is the legal and financial basis for the additional US$412 million debt financing being imposed on Sierra Leone in the name of the same electricity project whose viability has been repeatedly questioned by independent energy experts? Why did Erik Granskog and James Ireland resign from their executive positions at Milele Energy? Should they not be brought to account to Sierra Leoneans on whose names they took such colossal amounts of debts from US development finance agencies?
It is important for us to note that there is no record of any competitive bidding and public tender process that Milele Energy and DFC went through to take over the Western Area Power Generation Project. Sierra Leoneans are still unaware of the loan conditions, including the interest rates attached to DFC’s development finance loans. DFC is yet to disclose the process used to issue the US$412 million debt to the US-owned company Milele Energy for the alleged purpose of building an electricity infrastructure in Sierra Leone. DFC has also not clearly disclosed its real corporate affiliations and investment stake and financial interest in Milele Energy.
Is it not time that the US Embassy in Freetown and DFC officials provide real answers to these transparency questions?
Since DFC officials and US diplomats have instead embarked on a deceptive campaign to dodge scrutiny on these important issues, it remains our responsibility as thinking representatives of our country to continuously repeat these questions until true answers are provided to the people.
A few weeks ago, I highlighted how the same promise of electrifying Sierra Leone had been similarly used by APC politicians, British diplomats, and their corporate executives, including Karim Nasser of TCQ Power, to impose millions of dollars in fictitious debts on Sierra Leoneans during the days of Ernest Bai Koroma. Back then, British diplomats and APC politicians had similarly promised that they would complete the Western Area Power Generation Project by 2018. No such electricity infrastructure project was ever built despite the enormous debts taken in the name of the said project.
Now six years later, we are witnessing and undergoing the same deception and exploitation from American financed companies, backed and supported, by American diplomats in Washington and Freetown. The people of Sierra Leone did not bargain for this kind of exploitation and daylight robbery.
Sad 😢