By Dadson A. Musa

A solar service provider, Power Leone that provides electricity to the chiefdom of Kowa has been operating there since 2020. This is a service provider that is fully registered with government and has its headquarters in Freetown. Their operations were fully launched by president Julius Maada Bio in the north of the country since 2016. And have been operating in various parts of the country. They have a prepaid system of topping up their meters. They started off really well but of late have got customers in the chiefdom complaining about service delivery. No less a person than the paramount Chief elect herself, Madam Amy Tattor Tibbie Kallon who has stood her ground that ” the ripping of her people must stop.”

So, on Friday, 3rd May 2024 she’ called Power Leone and the chiefdom people to a town hall meeting to thrash out the issue. P. C. elect, Amy Tattor Tibbie Kallon opened the session by stating categorically that her ” people have not been getting value for money as they have been paying for services that are not being fully enjoyed.” So, to get it from the horses’ mouth she asked those in the chiefdom who bought the meters to access the solar electricity. The speakers ranged from the chiefdom imam, town chief to the ordinary citizens. They all spoke around one theme, paying for electricity and not getting it, late supply of electricity, not getting alerts when they buy top up. In fact, the chair lady of the chiefdom, Margaret J. Vanday complained that she ” gets notice of debt accumulation when the electricity is not utilized at all.”

In her response, one of the technicians from the head office of Power Leone said ” that she appreciates that they are talking about the problems in round table and friendly atmosphere. That the complaints are technical and are due to mobile network issues.” She accepted that there has been ” communication gap and poor public relations.”  This she promised that they are going to work on. But the P. C. elect emphasized that the ” issue of unexplained debt is what Power Leone must eradicate immediately as her people struggle to make money.” So, she gave them an ultimatum to either cease operating or bring drastic change.

The team has returned to Freetown with the message from the chiefdom people to head office to report back soon.

Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Wednesday, May 8TH, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)