By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah and Matthew Anderson
Records from a meeting held in early June 2012 in Sierra Leone between officials from the Ernest Bai Koroma administration and a delegation from the European Commission and the United Nations reveal the existence of a global energy network that initiated efforts to support Kandeh Yumkella’s political aspirations in Sierra Leone before he departed from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
Documents from the meeting, which took place in Freetown on June 7 and 8, 2012, provide significant insight into Yumkella’s strategic plan to leverage his connections within the UN system and his standing among Sierra Leone’s elites to advance his presidential ambitions after he retired from UNIDO in 2013. The documents also highlight a potential source of personal conflict between Koroma and Yumkella, which has significantly contributed to the political crisis affecting Sierra Leone since Julius Maada Bio assumed power in 2018.
The more than 25,000 documents gathered by Africanist Press reveal a complex web of corruption involving prominent Sierra Leonean politicians in various energy development initiatives dating back to 2011, during Koroma’s presidency. The documents — comprising official correspondence, investment agreements, and corporate records — provide insight into the involvement of both political figures and foreign corporations in a scheme that generates debt and disseminates misinformation while purporting to provide sustainable energy to Sierra Leone’s citizens.
A week ago, a report by Africanist Press revealed that an energy project aiming to construct an electricity power plant in Sierra Leone has accumulated over $1 billion in debt since the land was leased for just $1 in 2017. The proposal for the 125MW Power Plant at Kissy Dockyard in Freetown, which was intended to address the city’s electricity crisis, was initiated by former President Ernest Bai Koroma as part of his agenda for change in 2008. Despite being proposed fifteen years ago, construction of the power plant has not yet begun. Nevertheless, the multilateral debts associated with the project continue to rise, implicating both the Koroma and Maada Bio administrations.
In response to the report, Kandeh Yumkella, a significant figure in the controversial energy deals, appeared on several radio and television programs in Freetown to distance himself from the emerging scandals. He acknowledged the ongoing energy crisis in the country but emphasized that he had only recently begun assisting the Bio administration in achieving national energy sovereignty.
“I was appointed only 18 months ago,” he stated in one interview.
Yumkella joined Maada Bio’s cabinet following the controversial June 2023 elections that granted Bio a second term as president. The elections, which drew widespread condemnation from both local and international observers, resulted in a tripartite agreement facilitated by regional organizations with considerable funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The USAID-sponsored arrangement led to the establishment of a consensus government, encouraging the country’s two dominant political parties and opposition leaders to form a cabinet and parliament without disclosing verified election results.
Yumkella founded the National Grand Coalition (NGC) in 2017 as an opposition party to Bio’s leadership of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). The NGC has since become a significant force within the USAID-financed tripartite cabinet. Yumkella was appointed to lead the poverty reduction strategy under Bio’s administration, focusing on energy and food security sectors. Currently, members of the NGC hold over 85% of all cabinet and foreign service positions, including crucial roles such as Chief Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Information, Minister of Agriculture, and Attorney General. The position of Attorney General is currently held by Alpha Sesay, a former employee of the Open Society Foundation and USAID.
Although Yumkella publicly assumed leadership of Bio’s energy agenda only after the controversial June 2023 elections, our investigation uncovered that his influence and involvement in the corruption-prone energy sector of the country began during his time at UNIDO.
Yumkella served as the Director-General of the UNIDO for two consecutive terms, from 2005 until his retirement in 2013. Following his two four-year terms at UNIDO, Yumkella retired with the stated intention of running for the presidency of Sierra Leone.
“He decided to return to Sierra Leone to compete in the 2018 presidential elections,” a former UN diplomat told Africanist Press.
To support his presidential campaign, Yumkella’s colleagues at the UN established a global energy initiative called Sustainable Energy For All (SEFA). This initiative aimed to attract multinational corporations and development finance institutions from Europe and North America to back his presidential ambitions in Sierra Leone.
On the surface, the SEFA initiative was presented as a global effort to ensure universal access to “affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030.” Public documents present SEFA as a program designed to transform the energy landscape in developing countries by significantly increasing access to renewable energy and improving energy efficiency worldwide. However, it became apparent that the attractive promises were often overshadowed by the underlying political and financial motivations driving the SEFA initiative.
In Sierra Leone, it soon became clear after its launch that the true intention of SEFA was closely tied to Yumkella’s ambition to become president following Koroma’s term, which ended in 2018. SEFA was established in alignment with the UN’s 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) and was launched in September 2011 by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, with Yumkella serving as its first CEO and Special Representative for Sustainable Energy. In this role, Yumkella also served as Co-Chair of UN-Energy, which coordinates inter-agency collaboration in the energy sector.
During the launch of SEFA, Ban Ki-moon announced that the UN General Assembly had declared 2012 the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.” To further support Yumkella’s goals and SEFA’s objectives, the UN designated Sierra Leone as the “pilot country” for the initiative.
The selection of Sierra Leone as the pilot country was intentional. A year before the launch, in June 2010, Ban Ki-moon visited Sierra Leone as a special guest of then-President Koroma. During this two-day visit, Koroma reportedly agreed to support Yumkella’s ambition to succeed him as president. In return, global energy leaders pledged to mobilize financial support for Koroma’s development agenda during the UN’s Sustainable Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012.
Two weeks before the Rio+20 conference, the United Nations sent a delegation to Freetown to meet with President Koroma and his cabinet. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the UN’s decision to use Sierra Leone as a pilot site for SEFA initiative.
The SEFA delegation, led by Jean-Paul Joulia, head of the European Commission’s Energy Unit, arrived in Sierra Leone on the night of June 6, 2012. The delegation included Diego Maser and Rana Pratap Singh from UNIDO, as well as Nicolas Gonze from the European Commission.
Upon their arrival, the delegation was escorted by Jean-Pierre Reymondet-Commoy, the head of the European Union’s delegation to Sierra Leone. Reymondet-Commoy took them to meet then-Minister of Finance Samura Kamara, along with other ministers, including then-Agriculture Minister Joseph Sam Sesay and former Energy Minister Oluniyi Robin-Coker.
Records from the meeting indicate that Reymondet-Commoy informed Samura Kamara and the other ministers that the delegation was in Freetown to follow up on previous discussions regarding the UN’s selection of Sierra Leone as a pilot site for the SEFA initiative. Jean-Paul Joulia explained the objectives of the SEFA initiative to the ministers. He reiterated the UN’s call for Sierra Leone to join the initiative and inquired about the country’s commitment to serving as a pilot site.
Joulia emphasized that the initiative would require significant human and financial resources. He pointed out that achieving the initiative’s goals would also depend on attracting private sector involvement and engaging development partners. Additionally, he requested a gap analysis of the energy sector to evaluate the current energy situation in Sierra Leone and identify opportunities for improving access, efficiency, and the utilization of renewable energy sources. In response, Samura Kamara and his ministerial colleagues expressed their gratitude, underscoring that the SEFA initiative aligns with Koroma’s development agenda. They reassured the delegates that the Koroma administration fully supported the proposal to use Sierra Leone as a pilot site for the SEFA initiative. Meeting records indicate that both the ministers and the SEFA delegates discussed various energy initiatives undertaken by the Koroma administration to enhance energy access. These initiatives included the Solar Light Barefoot College Project, the Agricultural Business Center (ABC) Project, and the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) Project.
According to the documents, the ministers presented a comprehensive plan to address the energy challenges facing the country. This plan includes a prioritized investment of $7.8 billion over the next 18 years. The delegation and the ministers agreed on a suitable approach to analyze, interpret, and validate the proposed activity plan and the associated costs needed to address the identified gaps in the energy sector. In addition to the ministers, records show that the delegation also met with representatives from various organizations, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Development Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the British Department for International Development (DFID), the African Development Bank, the Chinese Embassy, and other stakeholders.
During the meeting, a significant topic of discussion was the issue of gender in the energy sector, which was raised by Naasu Fofana. She emphasized the importance of including women in the SEFA initiative. The delegates supported Fofana’s suggestion and resolved that “women should receive quality education to empower them to use modern energy more effectively.” Following the meeting, Naasu Fofana was appointed by President Koroma as the Gender Advisor in the President’s Office in Freetown.
After the meeting, the SEFA delegates agreed that “Sierra Leone could serve as a model for adopting the SEFA initiative.” The Ministry of Energy was tasked with coordinating energy-related issues across ministries, and two additional staff members were assigned to focus specifically on the SEFA initiative.
The minutes also highlighted a request for President Koroma’s administration to officially inform the UN of their acceptance of the SEFA initiative. In return, SEFA assured Koroma and his cabinet that they would advocate for donor action at the upcoming Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20 to 22, 2012, just two weeks after the meeting in Freetown.
Despite the assurances put forth, proponents of SEFA had alternative intentions. They aimed to employ “climate change rhetoric” and a “sustainable energy narrative” to create a global campaign that would support Kandeh Yumkella’s political aspirations. Through SEFA, influential global elites launched an international program designed to utilize the extensive network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) affiliated with the United Nations to further Yumkella’s political goals in Sierra Leone.
“Yumkella became a tool for a globalist agenda devised by the UN, with backing from multinational corporations and development finance agencies. This agenda sought to exploit the economies of the Global South, all while promising sustainable energy solutions to impoverished nations—promises that ultimately went unfulfilled,” noted two former UN officials familiar with the initiative.
From its inception, SEFA served as a robust platform for energy globalists to engage with leading multinational corporations and development finance agencies from Europe and North America, all in support of Yumkella’s presidential ambitions in Sierra Leone.
Back in Sierra Leone, Koroma was cautiously optimistic that the SEFA initiative would secure the international funding needed to implement his energy investment program. His optimism, though opportunistic, was not unfounded. Since assuming office in 2008, Koroma had prioritized electricity in his poverty reduction strategy as a key element of his national development plan. In early 2011, he launched several reforms in the energy sector, including the introduction of new electricity legislation. The legislation established two new entities: the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) and the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA), which replaced the former state-owned National Power Authority (NPA).
At the time of these administrative and legislative changes, international development agencies ranked Sierra Leone 178 out of 189 countries regarding access to electricity. Development experts noted that insufficient oversight in the electricity sector significantly contributed to this poor ranking and recommended that President Koroma dismantle the NPA and privatize the electricity supply system to improve the country’s transmission and distribution capabilities.
However, the dismantling of the NPA and the privatization of the electricity supply system have not resolved Sierra Leone’s long-standing electricity crisis; instead, they have exacerbated access issues and fostered corruption. Nearly fifteen years after the unbundling of the NPA, the expected improvements in energy production and electricity distribution remain unrealized, raising persistent concerns about the country’s ability to meet its growing energy needs.
“More than 90% of our population still lacks access to a reliable and sustainable electricity supply,” stated Micheal Berewa, a civil servant. He added that over the last five years, the Bio administration has embarked on numerous electricity projects to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in multilateral loans, including $412 million for a power plant in Freetown that has yet to be constructed.
Most notably, Yumkella, the first CEO of the UN-backed Sustainable Energy for All initiative, continues to play a significant role in Sierra Leone’s unsuccessful energy privatization program.
“I took the most difficult task in the country. President Julius Maada Bio has repeatedly told me he does not only need me but needs my networks, and my networks have been showing up,” Yumkella recently said, adding, “judge me in December 2026, or judge me when I leave the energy and the food security space.”
Sad 😢 for our mother Land SL