(Business in Cameroon) - On 5 June 2017, a meeting was held at the office of the Prime Minister on the “terms of the termination of the concession contract with Camerounaise Des Eaux (CDE)”. This Cameroonian company, owned by the Moroccan consortium led by the Office National de l’Eau Potable (ONEP – National Drinking Water Commission) and gathering the companies MedZ, Delta Holding and the civil engineering consultancy firm Ingema; has had since 2007 a 10-year concession contract in the drinking water distribution sector in Cameroon.

According to the documents which Business in Cameroon had access to, the 5^th June meeting was ordered by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, who instructed the government and the Managing Director of Camwater, the public company in the drinking water sector, to “take without delay all measures leading, formally, to the termination of the concession contract with Camerounaise des Eaux, and the restart of the corresponding activities by Camwater”.

According to the instructions from the President, all measures to be taken as part of the termination of this contract must be effective “by 31 August 2017 at the latest”, to respect the period stipulated in the concession contract. In practical terms, we learned, this is about finalising, in a first stage, the technical completion of the said contract. This includes in particular “the inventory, valuation and recording in the accounts of the assets and rights assigned to water services, the restitution of assets to be returned in good maintenance and working condition to the State, the assessment and distribution of the rights”.

Secondly, the government is asked to take “all necessary measures for Camwater to promptly take charge again of the management of the services under concession until now, particularly the administration, personnel, equipment, machinery, archives, etc.”; before the Head of State issues a “decree transferring the above-mentioned activities back to Camwater”.

As a reminder, the Cameroonian Head of State instructed the government to not renew the concession contract with CDE back in March 2016. In addition to the worsening difficulties in the distribution of drinking water in major Cameroonian cities, some observers quickly attributed this decision from President Biya to a conflict of interest between members of the Cameroonian government and CDE shareholders.

Brice R. Mbodiam