(Business in Cameroon) - Eneo, the public service concessionaire in the electricity sector in Cameroon, owned by the British investment fund Actis, recently signed with Aggreko, an independent power producer, a contract to install from July 2017, a thermal plant of 10 MW in Maroua, in Cameroon's Far North region. 

From official sources, this plant will help in reducing the terrible energy deficit which the three northern regions of Cameroon are currently going through, where almost all towns are without electricity two to three times a week, between 6am and 10pm.

At the origin of this detrimental situation for households as well as companies such as Sodecoton and Cotonnière industrielle du Cameroun (Cicam), who have production units in this area of Cameroon; is the reduction in electricity production by more than 50% on the Lagdo dam.
Indeed, according to authorised sources, the Lagdo dam plant, sole major energy infrastructure in the three northern regions of Cameroon, only produces about 30 MW of electricity, out of an installed capacity of 72 MW.

Experts attribute this decline to the dam’s reservoir being choked with sand, which is not able to retain enough water, and the unfavourable climate conditions, with limited rainfall as a consequence.

Incidentally, advised sources repeat, even in a situation of optimum production, the Lagdo plant is now insufficient to supply in energy the northern regions of Cameroon, whose population has been experiencing a boom since 1982, when this structure was commissioned. The increase in the energy offer in the country, for its part, officially grows at an average rate of 5 to 6% every year.

The hopes of the population in the Greater North regions of Cameroon are therefore focused on the announced construction of the Bini dam in Warak, in the Adamawa region, a structure which will be able to produce an additional 75 MW by the end of 2018. The construction works are carried out by Sinohydro, based on a Chinese financing.

Brice R. Mbodiam