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Cameroon: 63.7% of local communities still have no access to electricity due to lack of funding, the MINEE says

Cameroon: 63.7% of local communities still have no access to electricity due to lack of funding, the MINEE says
  • Comments   -   Monday, 05 July 2021 15:58

(Business in Cameroon) - As of the end of June 2021, 9,000 communities out of 13,104 still had no access to electricity. The data was presented by Minister of Water and Energy (MINEE) Gaston Eloundou Essomba on June 28, 2021, during a special presentation before the national assembly.

According to the official, important financial means are required to electrify those communities.  “To electrify the 9,000 communities still without access to electricity in our country, studies carried out by the MINEE local teams indicate that the State needs to raise about XAF874 billion,” he said.

He further disclosed that to make those funds available, the government recently created the electricity funds endowed with a XAF7 billion budget for the 2021 operation year. “Given the volume of funds needed to ensure electricity access in rural areas, it is important to dedicate additional financial resources to the electricity development fund,” he suggested.

According to government figures, the funds needed vary from region to region in the country. With XAF267 billion investment needed for electricity, the North is the region with the highest electricity investment need. In this region, which is ranked among the poorest in Cameroon (ed. note: along with the Far North, Adamaoua, and the East), 2,008 communities out of 2,694 have no access to electricity.

The next region with the highest electricity investment needs is the Center with needs estimated at XAF104  billion. As for Adamaoua, it needs XAF101 billion while XAF95 billion is needed in the South, XAF90 billion in the Far North, XAF66 billion in the Northwest, XAF66 billion in the East, XAF50 billion in the Litoral, XAF45 billion in the West, and XAF28 billion in the Southwest.

Pending the availability of the funds needed, almost 68.7% of the Cameroonian population remains in the dark, and large parts of the national territory are unfit for major economic activities despite the large sums invested in recent years for the construction of electricity infrastructures.

Brice R. Mbodiam

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