By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah
If you are a Sierra Leonean living in the United Kingdom, you may be using Octopus Energy for your electricity or energy services. However, you might not be aware that this British energy company is taking control of Sherbro Island and transforming it into an autonomous economic zone governed by a private corporation. By 2030, it is possible that the electricity you pay for in the UK could be generated from an Octopus Energy wind farm located on the southern coast of Sierra Leone.
The agreement to incorporate and privatize Sherbro Island, transferring it to Octopus Energy, was signed in 2019 by the Maada Bio administration through a confidential Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sherbro Alliance Partners. This company was established in June 2019 as a private limited company in the UK, founded by Idris Akuna Elba and Siaka Stevens, the grandson of Sierra Leone’s first president. The undisclosed agreement aims to make Sherbro Island an autonomous economic zone governed by a seven-member board of directors with sovereign powers. This arrangement would allow it to operate as a distinct legal entity, independent of Sierra Leone’s financial and economic laws and regulations.
Essentially, Sierra Leonean politicians have auctioned off Sherbro Island to a consortium of energy corporations and multinational banks, with plans to establish it as an autonomous economic territory within Sierra Leone’s borders. While there has been significant publicity surrounding what is marketed as Idris Elba’s “dream city” project, the real driving force behind it is Octopus Energy.
Octopus, whose green energy projects are valued at $7.5 billion and span 15 countries across Europe, Asia, and Australia, operates offshore wind farms in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and South Korea. Corporate sources indicate that Octopus views the Sherbro Island deal as a strategic move to capitalize on Africa’s renewable energy investment potential, a topic that has been a key agenda item at development finance forums hosted by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF since the 2012 Rio+20 summit of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
Reports suggest that Octopus Energy plans to use Sherbro Island as a launchpad for its anticipated $20 billion global investment in offshore wind by 2030, aiming to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In July 2024, Octopus established two subsidiary companies to support its green energy ambitions in Africa: Octopus Energy Generations Africa Holdco Limited and Octopus Energy Generation SL Limited, both with Zoisa Leah North-Bond and Ashleigh Chalmers Gray as registered executives.
While Sierra Leoneans celebrate Idris Elba and Siaka Stevens for the promising vision of an “emerging dream city,” the underlying reality reveals a different narrative. European green energy corporations, leveraging the influence of Elba and Stevens, are pursuing transnational initiatives to develop an international renewable energy farm off the southern coast of Sierra Leone. The venture aims to benefit European and other global markets, often at the expense of Sierra Leone’s environment and cultural heritage.
In Sierra Leone, the details of the Sherbro Island agreement with Octopus Energy have not been fully revealed to the country’s citizens. By employing Idris Elba as its spokesperson, Octopus Energy has obscured its intentions and the broader implications of the project behind a marketing strategy reminiscent of Hollywood, which the British media has dubbed “Idris Elba’s dream city” in Sierra Leone. Additionally, the arrangement lacks transparency and contravenes Sierra Leone’s investment and finance laws, as it was signed without public tender or competitive bidding.
This Octopus Energy deal is not the first transnational energy project to target Sierra Leone in recent years. Since 2011, the global energy network has identified Sierra Leone as a pilot site for the UN’s global energy agenda in preparation for the Rio+20 summit, with former UNIDO director general Kandeh Yumkella as its principal champion. In recent years, a series of transnational energy corporations, including Milele Energy, Siemens Energy, Nant Energy, CECA Africa, TCQ Power, and Octopus Energy, have competed for control over Sierra Leone’s energy resources.
Ironically, despite ongoing promises from global energy corporations to electrify towns and cities in Sierra Leone, more than 85% of both rural and urban populations still lack access to a reliable electricity supply.
In this context, the Octopus Energy-Sherbro Island deal holds significant implications. It offers an intriguing opportunity to analyze how transnational energy networks have influenced Sierra Leone’s political elites and how they may affect the future of elections and democracy in the country.