Age of Darkness Ending: Why Southeast Light Today Means More Than Ever

For a large section of Liberia’s recent past, electricity has represented much more than a necessity. It has represented a conduit for inclusion or exclusion. Where the light is, there is hope. Where it is not, decay is established.

Beneficiary counties

But for generations, the people in Grand Bassa, Sinoe, and Grand Kru counties found themselves on the wrong side of this divide; watching progress light up other parts of the country, while they are left in a state of perpetual darkness.

This was not the first instance of this problem, although the civil war intensified it. Even in the years of peace that followed, the Southeast was suffering from a quieter crisis: energy poverty.

Electricity was rare, intermittent, and in some cases, nonexistent.

Diesel generators bridged this gap, although only those who could pay received access.

The rest learned to make do without. Businesses closed early, or never opened due to the absence of sustainable electricity. Learning happened without technology. Healthcare was doled out. A region full of potential was held back by the lack of electricity.

The impact was anything, but theoretical or tangential. In Buchanan, Greenville, and Barclayville, cities by name only, truly rural, we witnessed markets fall haunted by sundown. Young people were excluded from the digital economy. Health centers wrestled with storing vaccines in refrigerators, with using simple diagnostic machines. Access to energy became a price invisibly paid with each passing day.

National development

From the perspective of national development, this was a structural failure. Every economy that modernizes requires energy. Every region that aspires to compete requires power. Every investor gambles on light, and not on darkness. Thus, the socio/economic fault line that developed in the Southeast was the result of a developmental failure that militates to this day.

This explains why the €42 million grant from the European Union (EU) in support of the “Light Up South East” (LUSE) Project, represents much more than an intervention in the infrastructure sector.

It signals a correction of the Liberia development map.

The impact of LUSE is not a function of a single installation, but an enterprise. Solar mini-grids, hydro-power, and advanced distribution infrastructure are being rolled out at one time. The development of a new two-megawatt mini-hydro-power plant at Sinoe River, solar power plants at Murrayville and Barclayville, and an upgraded Buchanan Transmission infrastructure, all at once chart a new beginning without a reinforcement of a long period of disregard for development. For the first time, development efforts are being planned around an addiction that corresponds, not merely compliments, survival.

The initial socioeconomic benefits are already evident, and they span across various fields.

Economic activity and employment are the first beneficiaries. With many more connections, stores can remain open; small production plants can operate their equipment; service businesses can grow above sustenance levels. Energy turns informal activity into formal business.

Education and healthcare are next. Electrified schools enable integrated digital education, and retain qualified teachers. Health facilities can operate safely during night hours, use life-saving medical equipment, and provide a cold chain essential to public health.

Additionally, the security and public safety aspects will be enhanced. The availability of constant power and LED lighting ensures that the rates of criminal activities, business closure times, and use of roadways after sunset are significantly lowered.

Perhaps, the most significant is investment confidence. Electricity reliability is the first question investors seriously ask when considering investment. The EU-funded LUSE Project, through its Global Gateways Initiative puts that question squarely to rest. There is no ambiguity: the message is clear – the Southeast is no longer off-grid within the economy.

However, there are also other implications associated with the project.

The benefits

Apart from the economic benefits associated with energy access, there are also stabilization and governance implications.

This is because energy access creates job opportunities for the youth, tackles pressures pushing people to migrate irregularly, as well as enhances the necessary digital infrastructure for democratic governance.

However, it is also important to recognize how this change is being communicated to the general populace. The communications strategy of the LUSE Project, undertaken by The In Profile Daily together with government institutions like the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, through its National Authorizing Office (MFDP/NAO), the Rural Renewable Energy Agency (RREA), and the EU Delegation to Liberia, is premised on the fact that people support, and sustain what they understand and own. The populace is thus being informed that they are not mere recipients of this new development, but have a stake in this national investment.

The importance of ownership has also been reflected in comments by local authorities. Persons like Honorable Augustine Ngafuan, Ambassador Nons Deprez, et Al, who have always encouraged people to perceive development as a responsibility to be shouldered together. Infrastructure will remain in place, only if communities are able to defend it, and make their members answer to each other.

Institutionally, it is evident that LUSE is a result of effective coordination among the NAO at MFDP, the RREA, and the EU Delegation, because it covers everything from missions within the fields to internship opportunities for young Liberian engineers.

The technical level

On the technical level, international contractors such as MBH Power Ltd., Constar-RCG France, and COLENCO Consulting, have the necessary knowledge. However, the success achieved in the project will be realized by the structures that will be in place after 2026, such as professionals, empowered communities, and institutions with the ability to maintain the power grid. This explains why gender-sensitively planned projects, and youth engagement in communications are central aspects.

The truth is simple, and unsentimental: The price of darkness has always exceeded the price of power. Lost decades cannot be recovered, but future can be reclaimed. With LUSE, those in the Southeast are not just getting electricity. They are finding relevance. Cables and poles are significant, but what matters most are the values that travel through them: values of opportunity, dignity, and the long overdue promise of equality in the progress of the nation. But let this moment be remembered, not simply as another entry on a roll call of who gave what to whom, but rather for what it was: the moment when the South East truly began to come out of the darkness and into the light.

All thanks to the People of the European Union for their taxes to Liberia free all charge.

Abraham Morris, Sr. is a non-Key expert, communications and visibility LIGHT UP SOUTH-EAST (LUSE) PROJECT