ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

For ten years, Cameroon has suffered from repeated electricity shortages, in spite of its impressive hydro-electricity potential. The population is disillusioned but resigned to the situation

Nobody is spared. Look what happened on April 2002. President Paul Biya was welcoming the country’s national football team in the presidential palace, Yaounde, because for the second time in a row, they’d won the African Cup of Nations (23rd edition) in Mali. The President was in the middle of his speech when suddenly both sound and light gave up the ghost. Agence France Presse carried the story, which for those concerned was far from being a joke. It illustrates Cameroon’s acute electricity crisis — originally part and parcel of life in rural areas but now throughout the Republic.

Figures speak for themselves. A December 2001 analysis of the present situation conducted by the Ministry of Industrial and Commercial Development’s Information, Evaluation and Planning Unity (CEPI), revealed that with a potential of 7 billion kw/h, Cameroon barely produces 2.8 billion i.e. just 40% of what could be produced, using already installed equipment. The situation is bound to get worse, keeping in mind that supplies don’t seem to be keeping up with the constant rise of the country’s needs (approximately 3% per annum).

Cameroon’s hydro-electric potential follows closely that of Congo RDC, which is by far Africa’s most important supplier. There should be enough electricity available to go around and even to export to Cameroon’s neighbours. But, as things presently stand, only 40% of city dwellers, and only 2,000 villages out of 30,000, have mains’ supply. i.e. only 11% of Cameroonians have access to electricity.

Mismanagement

According to experts, the crisis is due to mismanagement by officials of the now defunct State Electricity Company (SONEL) which was privatized last year. Experts explain that what happened within SONEL is a typical example of bad management. Babissakana, who is an engineer, says: «For a long time, SONEL answered to nobody. The company was a law unto itself.

The board of directors simply concerned themselves with administration and drawing their salaries. Internal control hardly existed and state-control was completely ineffective. External control by the Court of Auditors was a non-starter». Moreover, says Babissakana, SONEL had become a kind of job centre — recruiting without taking account of requirements for economic profitability.

The new owner is AES SIROCCO, an American multinational, which is a 56% shareholder. AES SIROCCO plans to lay off 2,000 of SONEL‘s 3,800 employees. Why? Because for a long time there’s been a woeful lack of maintenance work done; machinery has been allowed to deteriorate; there’s been an on-going saga of negligence and technical failings, as well as fraud within the company — all this seriously compromising the company’s performance. Hence, the electricity crisis.

The under-tariffing of electricity intended for ALUCAM (a local subsidiary company of the multinational aluminium company Péchiney), undoubtedly contributed to weakening considerably SONEL‘s financial potential. For about 40 years, ALUCAM has been paying 5 CFA francs for a kw/h of electricity, against the 50 CFA francs paid by the poorest section of the population. i.e. 10 times less. In 1999, ALUCAM used about 1,357,272,000 kw i.e. a loss of earnings for SONEL of more than 61 billion CFA francs, which the poor would normally have to pay for the same amount.

To provide energy for the greatest number of people, AES, which took over SONEL, is obliged to «load shed» (i.e.cut off power) for anything from a few hours to two days during the dry season (January to May). This is a time when the rivers are low and unable to produce enough electricity.

Heavy repercussions on the economy

The country’s economy is heavily affected by the electricity crisis. André Siaka, the employers’ president says: «The run-down in the electricity supply results in a loss of at least one point of growth rate per annum». In a statement in the government-run daily newspaper, Cameroun Tribune, André Fotso, a company manager is even more pessimistic: «I can tell you that over the last five years, losses caused by untimely cuts of energy are enormous. They seriously affect our balance sheet. We lose anything between 10% to 15%».

CEPI‘s report indicates that attempts at investment are unfortunately cut back at a time when Cameroon needs to relaunch its economy.

In order to meet international norms of 85,000 tons to 220,000 tons per year in its aluminium production, ALUCAM will need 3.3 billion kw/h of electricity, i.e. more than Cameroon’s national production. CIMENCAM (Cameroon’s cement-producing company) plans to produce one million ton per year, thanks to an energy supplement of 0.6 mws. Unfortunately this request for increased energy cannot be met for the moment. The competitiveness of the Cameroon Shipyard Company is likely to be compromised if its additional request of 20 mws, for its Limbe shipyard cannot be granted, as is feared. Fed up with waiting for an energy supplement of 4 mw ordered from the former SONEL, the country’s only petrol refinery, SONARA, finally decided to produce its own electricity, thus adding to its production costs.

As regards effects of the electricity cuts on the country in general and especially on the people, the local press has underlined the difficulties caused in Douala’s hospitals, with premature babies dying in their incubators and the city’s crime-wave increasing because of the lack of street lighting.

Finding solutions

By way of finding an immediate solution to the present urgency, AES decided to ration the supply of electricity to an average eight hours per day in the various districts of the country’s towns. Naturally, the people are not very happy. In January, there was a price hike in order to penalise those who are wasting energy. For energy consumed over and above IIO kw, consumers now pay 110 CFA francs per kw, instead of the former 50 CFA francs.

Experts, however, think that the long-term solution lies in major investment, by the building of hydro-electric dams, as envisaged by the 6th five-year development plan. AES has constructed power stations in Douala, Bafoussam and Yaoundé. Also, natural gas could also be used in generating electricity. A factory is being built in Limbe (south-west Cameroon) for this purpose.

Cameroon could usefully diversify its energy supply and limit its dependence on electricity. Côte d’Ivoire has already experimented successfully with this solution. The ecologist, Belmond Tchouma suggests that other energy source’s could be satisfactorily exploited to produce electricity such as solar power and wind energy.

Meanwhile, the people are resigned to the present unfortunate situation and still suspect that other painful electricity cuts are in the offing at the beginning of next year.