Yaounde: EDC trains, task journalists to report accurately on electricity sector.

This was the focus of a one-day training seminar organised in Yaounde Tuesday July 11, by the Electricity Development Corporation, EDC.

It held at the EDC conference room under the theme: “Mastering the stakes and challenges of the electricity sector in Cameroon”. It aimed training and providing journalists with information on the various changes that have taken place in the electricity sector.

The training, organisers insisted, would enable the journalists as members of the fourth estate, to tap accurate and reliable information from the right source for dissemination.

During the discussions journalists were also briefed on the role of each player in the said sector and the stakes of privatisation of SONEL to present day. 

Speaking at the start of the seminar, the General Manager of EDC, Dr Theodore Nsangou, said the meeting was to give journalists access to correct information at a time when citizens are asking a plethora of questions.

Dr Nsangou said through their meeting, several truths will be uncovered contrary to fake news circulating on social media. This, the EDC boss insisted, shall ensure that journalists are on the same page with regards to the energy sector.

“It is an exchange for us to inform journalists in order for them to better enlighten the public on energy related issues. We hope that this exchange will better help journalists on what the government is doing and will continue to do to take our country out of the dark,” he said.

Dr Nsangou added that: “It is important for us especially at a time when we are finalising very important projects assigned to us by the government”. 

The EDC boss also challenged journalists to use the knowledge acquired from the seminar to report accurately.

“What we expect from journalists is to tell the truth. Our role is to give you all the information so that you can in turn inform Cameroonians,” he said.

In a presentation, the Director of Operations at EDC, Bell Constatin Edouard, explained in detail the roles of each actor involved in the electricity sector.

The EDC official also brought journalists up to speed with the several commendable achievements of the company since its creation.  

EDC boss announces projects

The training seminar was an occasion for the EDC General Manager to announce several projects set to be carried out this year. Dr Theodore Nsangou revealed that the EDC has huge ambitions in 2023.

He mentioned that they were to take the East region permanently out of darkness thanks to constant electricity supply. 150 villages, the EDC boss said, are said to benefit from the project.

It comes after a similar project in the North and Extreme North which involved 300 villages.