“Lack of Adequate Electricity Responsible for Businesses Closure”

-- As Senate Cites Energy Sector Heads

Grand  Kru County Senator Numene T. H. Bartekwa has attributed the closure of major businesses,  including rich tax-paying supermarkets, to the Liberia Electricity Corporation's incompetence to provide the needed daily energy supply. 

“For example, businesses along the Gardnersville Freeway, including the Harbel and Saksouk Supermarkets are closing because these businesses have to run generators for the upkeep of their businesses, which is undermining the revitalization of the economy; LEC Is proving incompetent and unable to provided the needed energy,”  Senator Bartekwa told the Daily Observer  yesterday minutes after he submitted a communication to the Senate requesting the appearance of heads of the energy sector.

Following the reading of his communication, and based on the importance, and grave embarrassment faced by Liberians and foreign nationals, the Senate Plenary requested Secretary of the Senate, J. Nanborlor F. Sengbeh, to cite authorities of the Liberia Electricity Cooperation (LEC), Lands Mines and Energy and the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission to appear before that body on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.

In his communication, Senator Bartekwa, who chairs the Senate committee on Concessions and Investment, indicated that Liberian businesses are facing extreme difficulties in accessing Electricity despite the enactment of the appropriate law by members of the Liberian Senate, which is becoming a serious embarrassment to the entire Government.

He asserted that the Liberian Government and its partners over the years have invested huge resources into the development of the Mount Coffee Hydro power plant with a total output of 88 megawatts, including the West Africa Power Pool consisting of 27 megawatts cross border electricity support from Ivory Coast. 

“In spite of the electricity support from the Ivory Coast and despite the huge investment, Liberian businesses and foreign nationals are still yearning for Electricity.” Meanwhile, the Senate chamber was again, for the second time in recent weeks, faced with lack of electricity, forcing the Protempore to call for an executive session and subsequently adjourned.