(Business in Cameroon) - Officials from the United States embassy in Yaoundé met, on 6 December 2016, the Minister of Energy and Water, Basile Atangana Kouna. This was about encouraging the Cameroonian government to finance electricity production projects through the Power Africa Initiative to which the country is eligible.

Initiated in 2013 by American President Barack Obama, with an initial capital of USD (over FCfa 4,300 billion), Power Africa was mean to provide impetus to raise an additional USD 43 billion (about FCfa 26,000 billion) by more than 120 public and private institutions.

The main public partners of the initiative are the European Union, the World Bank group and the African Bank of Development. This latter institution even announced that it planned to invest in the long term, between USD 40 and 50 billion in the African energy sector.

To date, over 4,300 MW in additional energy installations have been created as part of Power Africa, whose goal is to increase the energy capacity in sub-Saharan Africa to 30,000 MW. This American has been benefitting for some months now from Japan’s support, who recently took the commitment of increasing the electricity capacity in sub-Saharan Africa to 1,200 MW by 2018.

As a reminder, Cameroon, who has an impressive hydro-electric potential (over 13,000 MW), unfortunately suffers from the production deficit (less than 1,500 MW in installed capacity for a demand growing by 8 to 10% every year) detrimental to the economic development of the country. Since 2012, the country has launched a vast programme for the construction of energy infrastructure, whose optimal implementation is held back by the lack of funding to enable the completion of many structures.

Brice R. Mbodiam