Idris Elba ‘dreams big’ with West African eco-city plan

Hollywood actor Idris Elba has a big dream for Sierra Leone. He wants to regenerate a beautiful island off its coast and turn it into an eco-friendly city. The project also intends to bring wind-powered renewable electricity for the first time to the West African nation. Elba was brought into the project by his childhood friend Siaka Stevens, the grandson of a former Sierra Leonean president of the same name.

The pair grew up together in east London, both have worked as DJs and their paths often cross in the entertainment world. Stevens has been spending more time in Sierra Leone and had initially wanted to establish a boutique hotel. Sherbro Island falls within the home district of current President Julius Maada Bio. The island had a population of around 30,000 people in 2013, when the latest available data was recorded.

Sherbro Alliance Partners (SAP) was born and in 2019 a deal was struck with the Sierra Leonean government to develop Sherbro. The whole island is within the scope of the project. It could accommodate a population of up to a million people. The project is to be financed through a public-private partnership.

The island will be designated a special economic zone with a separate legal and economic system from the rest of Sierra Leone. The wind and solar farm will include five wind turbines, an array of solar panels and battery storage. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, though the timing depends on weather conditions. Sierra Leone’s rainy season typically runs from May to November.

The project is one of the largest in the world. Only 28% of Sierra Leone’s population currently has access to electricity. Rural areas like Sherbro Island have no mains power. Octopus Energy is considering two ways to distribute power across the island.

One was a micro-grid, the other was to function as an energy island. Sherbro Island could be a model for other parts of Sierra Leone or elsewhere on the African continent. The co-ordinator, Sherbro Alliance Partners has not specified a single budget, but investment would be drawn from a wide range of sources and is likely to run to billions of dollars. The project has signed contracts with a series of specialist partners including Lloyds,asaki Associates and Foster amp; Partners.

The success of this project can only be judged with hindsight, but it is a huge undertaking. Some other African projects with a similar ethos are yet to reach their potential. Idris Elba is building a smart-city in Sierra Leone. He says he is qualified to dream big.

Elba says his late father would have been proud of him.