Sierra Leone: State Department Must Investigate DFC, Milele Energy, and US Embassy in Freetown Over US$500 Million “White Elephant Energy Project”

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman

In October 2024, we reported that diplomats of the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone and officials of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) were covering-up evidence on a US$500 million energy investment deal corruptly awarded to the United States-financed company, Milele Energy by Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio.

Our report came after an “emergency meeting” of Milele Energy executives held on 16 October 2024 in London agreed on a “special resolution” to change the company’s name to Osprey Renewables Africa Limited. Our investigation discovered that the application to change Milele Energy into Osprey Renewables Africa Limited was submitted to the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on the same day (16 October 2024) and was approved on 17 October 2024; less than 24 hours after the application was submitted.

Corporate records from the United Kingdom’s Registrar of Companies obtained by the Africanist Press further revealed that the name change application was submitted after the company’s two American executives, Erik Granskog and James Ireland, resigned from the company; leaving only two British nationals and a South African said to be resident in the United Kingdom as the remaining executive officers.

DFC officials and diplomats of the US Embassy in Freetown are yet to reveal why Erik Granskog and James Ireland resigned from Milele Energy, and why Milele’s corporate registration and investment portfolios in London, Nairobi, and Freetown have simultaneously been turned over to Osprey Renewables.

The resignation of the company’s two American executives came shortly after the US Embassy in Freetown and DFC announced in early May 2024 that DFC has issued US$412 million energy loan to Sierra Leone through Milele Energy and its corporate partner, TCQ Power Limited, to fund the construction of a new 126.5-MW Liquified Natural Gas Power Plant in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.

DFC officials said the power plant, once constructed, will help address Sierra Leone’s rolling blackouts and expand its national electricity system to accommodate additional renewable energy solutions in the future.

Following the announcement, US Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Bryan David Hunt, said the DFC loan will “revolutionize Sierra Leone’s energy landscape” and the 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 recipients of the US$412 million DFC loan.

Milele Energy’s Chief Executive Officer, Erik Granskog and his colleague Karim Nasser of TCQ Power Limited shared similar sentiments. They proclaimed their commitment to “delivering sustainable power solution to the people of Sierra Leone” and said they were looking “forward to executing on the next steps and construction.”

Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited are no strangers to Africa’s new energy debt investment deals that have become regular agenda items at international conferences and multilateral meetings of development finance agencies and the World Bank Group.   Founded in 2019 by former GE Africa executives, Milele—meaning “forever” in Swahili— claimed to invest in developing, owning, and operating utility-scale power generation facilities using renewable technology, as well as gas-for-baseload applications.

“Our goal is to unlock Africa’s abundant sustainable energy potential to meet the underserved energy demands on the continent that continue to grow daily,” the company said in its marketing materials.

 The energy project, known as the West Area Power Generation Project, was first developed under the auspices of the Ernest Bai Koroma regime some 15 years ago in 2011 after Sierra Leone’s National Power Authority (NPA), the parastatal arm responsible for the generation and supply of electricity since 1982, was dismantled as part of the postwar national privatization program designed by international financial institutions in the early 2000s.

On assuming office in 2007, Ernest Koroma announced that his administration’s primary focus was to completely transform Sierra Leone’s economy through “substantive investment in critical infrastructure, improved social services delivery, and private sector development.” On paper, Koroma’s poverty reduction strategy (or what he called his Agenda for Change) prioritized four key areas: the provision of reliable power supply across Sierra Leone, increased productivity in agriculture and fisheries, modernized transportation network to facilitate trade and travel, and ensuring sustainable human development. In this list of development priorities, the electrification of Sierra Leone assumed top priority.

 A year later in 2008, Sierra Leone’s economic growth rate was projected to be around 6.5% per annum and per capita GDP was less than US$350, meaning that the majority of Sierra Leoneans lived on less than US$1 per day, according to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics.

In 2011, Sierra Leonean politicians enacted a new electricity legislation that created two parallel institutions: the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) and the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) to replace the state-owned NPA. Of interest, by 2016, international financial institutions ranked Sierra Leone 178 out of 189 countries with the least access to electricity.

Development agencies stated that weak oversight of the electricity sector was responsible for the poor ranking, and they suggested that dismantling NPA and privatizing electricity supply would enhance electricity transmission and distribution capacity in the country.

However, the dismantling of NPA and the privatization of electricity supply in Sierra Leone has not resolved the country’s perennial electricity crisis but has further worsened access to electricity and fueled corruption.

 Conceptualized as a solution to Freetown’s electricity crisis, the West Area Power Generation Project was first awarded to the Zambian-based Copperbelt Energy Corporation Africa (CECA) in 2016 on a 20-year power purchase agreement that included the construction of a 57 MW thermal power plant in the Kissy Dockyard of east Freetown. The power purchase agreement also authorized CEC Africa to generate and sell electricity to Sierra Leone’s Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) for onward distribution to Freetown residents.

 The West Area Power Generation Project was jointly owned by CEC Africa Investments Ltd (50.1%) and Tempus Constant Qualitas (TCQ) Power Ltd (49.9%). Together, CECA and TCQ Power created a subsidiary company in Freetown called CECA Sierra Leone Generation Limited as the project’s executing company. In 2016, CECA and TCQ Power shared their power purchase and investment agreements with the World Bank Group and other development finance institutions who agreed to provide multilateral debt financing for the project. The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), for instance, provided a US$22 million loan to CECA Sierra Leone for the Western Area Power Generation Project. The international loan package also included a US$40 million guarantee from the International Development Assistance (IDA), an additional US$60 million from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and US$30 million A-Loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with an interest rate swap of US$3 million, all given to CECA SL Generation Limited.

 In October 2016, the IFC announced that it was acting as lead arranger and interest rate swap provider to help mobilize additional loans for the project from other development finance institutions that included the African Development Bank, CDC Group, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO).

 “This debt financing package will support an independent power generation facility in an industrial zone about 4km outside of Freetown. The project covers the development, construction, and operation of a 57-megawatt heavy oil fuel-fired power plant,” the IFC noted in a press statement on 24 October 2016.

Back in 2016, TCQ’s Chief Executive Officer, Karim Nasser was enthusiastic that they had overcome the “incredibly challenging task of developing the first independent power project” in post-war Sierra Leone.  

 “With the support of IFC and other lenders we move ever closer to realizing our objective and paving the way for further independent power generation in Sierra Leone,” Karim Nasser said in October 2016, adding, “IFC has been a leader in structuring a commercially viable project and helping us mobilize support from other lenders.”

 Thus, the project’s documents and the financial agreements all promised that construction and operation of the power plant was to be completed within four years; a time frame that would have coincided with the end of the second term of the Koroma regime in 2018. The 20-year power purchase agreement provides that electricity generated by the power plant would be sold to EDSA for onward resale and distribution to resident customers in Freetown and the larger western area.

Two years later, on 7 March 2018, Sierra Leone’s former president Koroma, accompanied by international finance representatives and foreign diplomats, organized an event in Freetown to launch the start of construction at the power plant’s proposed site in Kissy, east of Freetown. The attendance list included representatives of the World Bank Group, the CDC, TCQ Power, the African Development Bank, and the former British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Guy Warrington.

 At the event, TCQ Power’s Karim Nasser again said the ceremony had brought them “closer to delivering more electricity to the people of Sierra Leone.” His project counterpart, Paul Hanrahan, the CEO of Globeleq, representing Britain’s financial stake in the project, expressed similar excitement.

 “We are very excited at the opportunity to participate with CDC and TCQ in Sierra Leone,” Hanrahan said, adding that the project “provides Globeleq an opportunity to develop relationships with key decision makers and enables us to support the energy sector and build more generation in the country.” 

Notwithstanding these glowing statements, it turned out the event only celebrated a ghost project; no real construction was taking place in the Kissy Dockyard area and although millions of dollars in debt financing agreements had been signed, the Western Area Power Generation Project remained a development idea on paper only. Apparently, officials of the Koroma regime and their foreign counterparts were exploiting the idea of  electrifying Freetown to privatize electricity in order to accumulate debts and interests that were never intended for the stipulated purpose.

 On assuming office in 2018, 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. The damning discoveries led to transnational conversations and negotiations involving US diplomats, international banking officials, and regional politicians in West Africa.

One such crucial transnational meeting, held in Lebanon in early September 2020, was disguised as a purported “medical visit” by Julius Maada Bio. An audit exercise into the transactions relating to the visit, including the renegotiated agreements, resulted in the unprocedural sacking of Sierra Leone’s two most senior auditors, Lara Taylor-Pearce and Tamba Momoh from the country’s national auditing agency in September 2021. The Lebanon meeting, details of which are still tightly kept among officials and diplomats, was the climax in Bio’s effort to reverse and reclaim control over several of the energy deals that Koroma had signed off to various British and other multinational corporations during his ten years in office.

Using the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Bio stripped Koroma and his foreign corporate allies off their investment interests and corporate shares in the Western Area Power Generation Project. Having forcefully inherited Koroma’s interests in the project, Bio then turned it over to the US financed company, Milele Energy.

“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,” a former official in Sierra Leone’s energy ministry said, adding, “they just handed the project to Milele Energy without following any of the transparency and finance laws of the country.”

The DFC took over the 20-year power purchase agreement from the CDC and Globeleq in 2021, and American-finance interests have since claimed ownership, through Milele Energy and TCQ Power, of the previous shareholdings of British corporations. The renegotiated energy deal gave US-financed Milele Energy 50.1% ownership of the project.

Like the Koroma era operation, the Bio group, apparently backed by US corporate finance (through various diplomats at the US Embassy in Freetown and DFC executives in Washington), similarly used the same project to accumulate hundreds of millions in multilateral loans from the US for energy production and electricity distribution, none of which has been realized to date in Sierra Leone.

From July 2021 to June 2024, the Western Area Power Generation Project alone has grossed nearly US$500 million in principal DFC debt finance, excluding interests. Our investigation discovered that most Sierra Leoneans are still unaware of the loan conditions, including the interest rates attached to DFC’s development finance loans.

“DFC hasn’t disclosed the process used to issue the US$412 million debt to Milele Energy for the alleged purpose of building the proposed electricity infrastructure in Freetown,” civil servant Micheal Berewa said, adding that DFC has also failed to reveal any conflicts of interest, including its corporate affiliations and financial interests in the now defunct Milele Energy.”

“We have asked several transparency-related questions about Milele Energy and how they became involved in the corruption-infested energy sector in Sierra Leone but our questions are being ignored,” Berewa said.

In public communication documents, the DFC and the US Embassy in Sierra Leone presented 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 were, and are still, required to enable real public scrutiny of Milele Energy’s track record and whether the company actually had the proven capacity to deliver on its contractual responsibilities when it was awarded the energy investment deal to build a power plant in Sierra Leone.

Early in 2024, Africanist Press discovered corporate documents showing that while Milele Energy claimed to be a Kenyan-based company, it was actually 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 James 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 included 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 we reviewed also showed that three Milele Energy executive officers were 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 was 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 were the same individuals who were listed 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.

Since October 2024, Milele Energy, together with its affiliated subsidiary companies, folded operations and became Osprey Renewables Africa Limited. The American executives, who received about US$500 million from DFC to build the power plant in Sierra Leone, have also exited the company without any explanation.

Few months ahead of these developments, DFC’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Nisha Biswal had visited Sierra Leone in June 2024 to “launch the construction of the Freetown power plant.” Together with US Ambassador Bryan David Hunt, they joined Maada Bio and other Sierra Leone politicians at a launching ceremony held at Kissy Dockyard in Freetown; on the same site where Ernest Koroma and British diplomats had similarly gathered to launch the same construction project in 2018.

At the launching ceremony, Nisha Biswal and Bryan Hunt promised that the Western Area Power Generation Project, now named Nant Energy, “would double Sierra Leone’s energy capacity and address the country’s lack of reliable energy infrastructure.” Biswal and Hunt also promised that “construction will reach completion in 36 months.”

Our investigation found no evidence that any such construction has started in Sierra Leone since that event. Instead, a few months later, US diplomats in Washington and Freetown again announced that they were offering another US$480 million grant to Sierra Leone from another US development agency, the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC), also to “help fund Sierra Leone’s electricity sector.”  

In spite of the huge external debts accumulated by Sierra Leone to build its energy infrastructure, the majority of Sierra Leoneans – more than 85% of the population – still have no access to reliable electricity and safe drinking water; services that American citizens largely take for granted. In late April 2024, the electricity crisis forced the country’s energy minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay to resign over alleged failure of the Finance Ministry to pay an outstanding US$42 million utility bill to the Turkish-based Karpowership, a floating electricity vessel contracted in 2018 to provide power supply to Freetown.

One day after Minister Sesay’s resignation, a government notice announced that the energy ministry has been placed under the direct supervision of the presidency. But the administrative restructuring exercise has also not resolved the energy crisis.

However, Sierra Leonean politicians enjoyed unparalleled support from Washington during the four years of the Biden-Harris administration. US-financed corporations acquired strategic control of critical infrastructure and service-related contracts in Sierra Leone’s energy, telecommunication, mining, health, and transportation sectors. Between June 2021 and July 2024, the DFC alone approved over US$750 million in loans to fund mostly unvetted infrastructure contracts awarded to US-financed corporations registered in Turkey, Lebanon, London, and Kenya. The list of DFC funded projects included US$150 million loan in support of a non-advertised infrastructure contract awarded to the Turkish-based Summa Group to expand and privately operate Sierra Leone’s only international airport on a 25-year concession. 

Sierra Leoneans, we interviewed, say they hope an “investigation into the activities of the DFC and US Embassy in Sierra Leone is carried out.”

“We have been asking valid questions throughout the four years of the Biden-Harris administration, but DFC officials and US diplomats ignored our genuine concerns,” they said, adding that “officials of the US Embassy in Freetown have continued to fund disinformation campaigns in Sierra Leone to dodge scrutiny on these important issues.”