By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah
In July 2021, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced the disbursement of a $217 million loan to the Maada Bio administration through Milele Energy and TCQ Power. This funding was intended to facilitate the construction of a new power plant in Freetown, with the goal of addressing the city’s ongoing electricity crisis.
To secure DFC funding, the Bio administration was required to amend Sierra Leone’s 1960 Arbitration Law, paving the way for new arbitration legislation. This revised law was passed in September 2022, aligning Sierra Leone’s obligations with the New York Convention and the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States. Its objective was to safeguard Milele Energy and other DFC-funded entities in Sierra Leone from potential renegotiations or cancellations, thereby promising a stable legal environment for foreign direct investment.
Over the four-year period following these reforms, DFC’s financial commitments for the construction of the Freetown Power Plant surged significantly. What began as a $217 million loan in July 2021 more than doubled to over $412 million by June 2024. However, despite the mounting debts, no construction work commenced at the project site. On June 18, 2024, Julius Maada Bio and his cabinet officials hosted an event in Kissy, east Freetown, to announce the construction of the Freetown Power Plant. Yet, a subsequent investigation revealed no evidence that any construction had begun in Sierra Leone since the launch event in June 2024.
By the end of 2024, when construction was expected to be completed, Milele Energy unexpectedly ceased operations, suspended its Twitter account, and divested all its investment shares to Osprey Renewables Africa Limited. An emergency meeting, held on October 16, 2024, in London, resulted in a special resolution to change the company’s name to Osprey Renewables Africa Limited. An investigation by Africanist Press revealed that the application to rebrand Milele Energy as Osprey Renewables Africa Limited was submitted to the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on the same day (October 16, 2024) and received approval on October 17, 2024, in less than 24 hours. American executives Erik Granskog and James Ireland, who were involved in securing DFC loans for the power plant, also departed the company without offering any explanation.
As Milele Energy transitioned into Osprey Renewables, the Bio administration, along with its corporate partners, shifted the electricity infrastructure project to a newly established subsidiary named Anergi Sierra Leone Investment Limited, which is part of the Anergi Group. Like its predecessor, Anergi Sierra Leone Investment Limited took on similar legal violations and transparency issues. The financing agreements and transactions related to the transfer of the Western Area Power Generation Project to Anergi Sierra Leone Investment Limited took place in October and November 2024, without any public tender or competitive bidding process.
Corporate records reveal that Anergi Sierra Leone Investment Limited was incorporated one month after the June 2024 event in Freetown, which is believed to mark the beginning of the power plant’s construction. Maria Stratonova and Omosuyi Fred-Omojole, serving as its executive officers of Anergi Investment, have succeeded Erik Granskog and James Ireland from Milele Energy, who had previously committed to building the power plant. Allegedly, Anergi secured a $292 million loan from the DFC on December 10, 2024, to fund the construction and operation of the power plant in Freetown, despite the project reportedly being developed by Milele Energy and TCQ Power. This transaction between the DFC and Anergi Sierra Leone Investment was finalized during the final weeks of the Biden-Harris administration, even though no construction had commenced since the project’s launch in June 2024.
In summary, the DFC has reportedly committed over $600 million to the Maada Bio administration for the development, construction, and operation of a 105 MW combined cycle thermal power plant, along with its associated infrastructure, in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
According to project documents and corporate financial records obtained by Africanist Press, these funds were awarded by the DFC in multiple tranches between fiscal years 2021 and 2024 during the Biden-Harris administration. The initial disbursement of $217 million occurred in 2021 under Project ID 9000093682. In 2022, the DFC provided an additional $50 million in political risk insurance (Project ID 9000104835). Furthermore, in 2024, an additional $292 million (Project ID 9000116894) and $120 million (Project ID 9000116916) were allocated for the power plant project. In total, at least $679 million has been committed over the past four years for the construction of the power plant; however, no construction has yet taken place in Sierra Leone.
The pressing questions are: Where are these funds, and why has the power plant not been constructed, especially considering that its completion was scheduled for 2023?