Sierra Leone Energy Sector Utility Reform Project Additional Financing (WB-P166390)

Countries
  • Sierra Leone
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • World Bank (WB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
May 20, 2019
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Government of Sierra Leone
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 50.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 51.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ WB website

Updated in EWS Apr 4, 2019

Disclosed by Bank Mar 1, 2019

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to bank documents,

Original Objective:
To improve the operational performance of the national electricity distribution utility.

Current Objective:
The current Project Development Objective is to improve the operational performance of the national electricity distribution utility.

The parent project is comprised of three components: (i) Distribution utility capacity enhancement and performance improvement; (ii) Improvement of electricity supply in urban areas; and (iii) Sector planning assistance, project implementation support and monitoring and evaluation.

The activities under the Additional Financing are scaling-up of the activities of the three components in the parent project and are described below

  1. Distribution utility capacity enhancement and performance improvement. The new activities under this component will further support EDSA to hire a professional management team to strengthen its commercial management and continue to build the local capacity within the utility to ensure sustainability of the results. Improving commercial performance of EDSA is a necessary condition for the utility to become financially viable. It is not however sufficient as good management of the utility will need to be complemented by the commitment and actions of the GoSL to ensure that Government Agencies pay their bills, and there exists a functional legal regime to effectively tackle power theft and illegal connections. The additional activities include:
    1. Incorporation of a modern management information system. This sub component will assist EDSA to improve its operational performance in the key areas of commercial management and attention and resolution of incidents in electricity supply to its customers.
    2. Technical Assistance to EDSA. This would help build local management capacity within EDSA at the mid and top levels to ensure sustainability of its operations once the management contract ends in November 2019.
  2. Improvement of electricity supply in urban areas. The additional activities under this component would finance the upgrading and expansion of the 33kV,
    11kV and low voltage network, including connection of new customers, and project management by EDSA. New activities to be added for each sub-component are described below:
    1. Primary medium voltage distribution network upgrade and extension. This subcomponent will finance the construction of four new 33/11kV substations and upgrade of one existing 11kV switching station to a 33/11kV substation as well as construction of new 33kV sub-transmission lines to link the proposed substations. This would help to increase the capacity of the network to evacuate power from the bulk electricity supply point to the load centers in the distribution network.
    2. Secondary and low voltage distribution network extension. This sub-component includes investments on extension of the 11 kV and Low Voltage network and customer connections, complementary to those in the parent project, to major unserved residential, commercial and industrial centers, which are the most critical constraints to increase the distribution capacity and supply reliability of the network in Freetown.
    3. Project Implementation Support. This sub-component is newly added and will cover the cost of strengthening the capacity of the project implementing team in EDSA to manage and monitor project implementation. It will include the financing of the necessary safeguard studies (RAP) and the costs of employing specialized consultants (technical, financial, procurement, audit, social, etc.), including young professionals to support the project management team.
  3. Sector Planning assistance, project implementation support and monitoring and evaluation. The additional activities include consulting services for preparing and implementing strategies and projects for electrification through mini-grid solution, training, study tours and other capacity building for MOE and other sector players.
Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

World Bank:
Jianping Zhao
Senior Energy Specialist

Joseph Tawiah Quayson
Senior Energy Specialist

Borrower:
Government of Sierra Leone
Sahr Jusy
Head, Public Debt Management Division

Implementing Agencies:
Ministry of Energy
Albert Patewa
Financial Management Specialist and Interim General Project
albert2115p@gmail.com

Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA)
Milton Moiwa Gegbai
Director General
mgegbai74@gmail.com

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF WORLD BANK

The World Bank Inspection Panel is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by a World Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Inspection Panel, they may investigate to assess whether the World Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can contact the Inspection Panel or submit a complaint by emailing ipanel@worldbank.org. You can learn more about the Inspection Panel and how to file a complaint at: http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/Home.aspx.

How it works

How it works