BADEA FUNDS FREETOWN AREA POWER GENERATION
By Marian Samu

TUESDAY, 9TH AUGUST 2005: Chief Executive of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), led by the Director-General of BADEA, Mr. Medhat Sami Lofty have briefed President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah on the current status of the several projects the bank is supporting in Sierra Leone including other areas in which they have agreed to intervene.

In addition to the Njala University College Rehabilitation Project and the Mount Aureol hillside by-pass road construction project for which funds have already been provided, and the Kent-Tokeh road project which is already completed, BADEA on Tuesday, 9th August 2005 signed an agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone in support of a nine million dollar Western Area Power Generation Project which will be co-financed by both BADEA and the Government of Sierra Leone. BADEA will provide eight million dollars while the Government of Sierra Leone will provide the remaining one million dollars.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. Joseph Kallon, explained that the object of the Western Area Power Generation Project is to build a total of 50 megawatts thermal plants in their sub-power stations that will supplement the Bumbuna Hydro Electric Power Project. He said that the agreement signed is to cover the first phase of the project which will provide a 7.5 mega watts sub-power station at Blackhall Road that will supply power to the east-end of Freetown.

Talking about their intervention in other projects which are in the pipeline, the Director-General of BADEA said that the Bank has agreed to finance the reconstruction of the Kenema-Koindu road which is hoped to commence early next year as soon as the feasibility studies are completed. Research facilities at Fourah Bay College and the Kabala Water Works project the Kenema Government Hospital are some of the projects they have agreed to finance.

President Kabbah expressed his greatest appreciation to the Bank for their enthusiasm and the pace at which they have come in with their interventions considering the fact that it was only three years ago when he met with the Bank Executives in Rome. The President thanked them for their intervention in the Standards Bureau, noting that their intervention in the setting up the Standards Bureau means they are also taking care of our lives especially with the influx of bad products including fake drugs into the market.

With regards to the road sector, President Kabbah commended the Bank's intervention particularly in the rehabilitation of roads. He stated that roads are key to the development of the economy, citing the case of the farmers who need good roads to take their produce to the market. He re-emphasized the importance of the Kenema-Koindu road both for security reasons and for economic reasons as it is the road leading to the bread-basket of this country where the major cash crops of cocoa and coffee are produced, including some productive diamond fields. He recalled that it was this route the rebels used to enter Sierra Leone from Liberia and because of the bad condition of the roads, it was difficult to access the troops that were based in that part of the country and that it was only UNAMSIL who came in to help fly in food and other logistics and supplies to the troops.

President Kabbah thanked them for the brotherly interest they have exhibited in the people of Sierra Leone for which Sierra Leoneans are very much impressed, and promised to pay a special visit to the BADEA headquaters during a scheduled visit to Sudan in order to express his appreciation to the Bank.