Powering Social Infrastructure in Sierra Leone: Market Assessment and Roadmap for Schools

This Market Assessment and Roadmap for Schools in Sierra Leone found that 45 percent of senior secondary schools and 85 percent of primary schools lack access to power. Given the large number of schools in the country, this means that close to 10,000 schools require a robust power solution (either in the form of a new installation or a back-up to a grid), of which 1,745 are secondary schools. To close the energy access gap for secondary education facilities – where energy needs are higher – would require approximately USD 90 million.

Based on the assessment, SEforALL created a forward-looking roadmap with short-term actionable recommendations for the public sector, development partners, and the private sector, to overcome barriers that are impeding the accelerated deployment of sustainable power solutions to schools and health facilities.

Recommendations for the education sector include:

• The need for investment in reliable data, as both sectors lack a reliable and up-to-date dataset capturing electrification rates or recently completed electrification efforts.
• As efforts to electrify social infrastructure in Sierra Leone are accelerating significantly, increased coordination and guidance on minimum technical standards can also have a significant impact in the short-term on the quality of electrification efforts from development partners.
• Long-term sustainability remains a critical area that will require additional investment, through piloting innovative models that seek to leverage private sector skills and match it with the public sector’s ability to pay for longer term operation and maintenance.

The analysis was developed by SEforALL with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, and in close coordination with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE).