Govt-ENEO debt row: MINFI clears air, says state paid over 300 billion FCFA in three years!.

The figures were made public in Yaounde Wednesday January 10.
This was during an exchange the Director of Treasury at the Ministry of Finance, Samuel Tella, had with reporters. 

Tella  situated the  context of government’s  responsibility to ensure  access to basic  social  services, restating that, President  Paul Biya’s declarations touching on the challenges in the  electricity sector, calls for the clarification of public opinion.
According to Tella, between 2021 and 2023, the government worked on all fronts to mobilise resources in the interest of supporting ENEO play its role of supplying power. 
He revealed that over 300 billion FCFA has been paid since 2021, as part of government’s social responsibility and other interventions to avoid blackouts.
He disclosed that out of an established bill of 282,500,405,809, government paid 299, 857,441,243. Tella said the excess of over 16,357, 035, 434 billion FCFA corresponds to different expenditure heads which are already being validated by competent structures.
The figures presented to reporters yesterday, the Treasury Director said, were reached after a thorough cross-checking. 
The evaluation, he said, was done by a team from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Water and Energy Resources and representatives of ENEO. He said representatives of the different parities countersigned minutes of the meetings. The official brandished a copy of the report to reporters.
The signatures, he said confirmed payments made by the State to ENEO, for the period January 2021 to December 20, 2023.
He said, the minutes clarified that payments the State has made to ENEO covers public consumption, subsidy for electricity tariff, public lighting, Value Added Tax, VAT and reimbursable works. Tella clarified that the payments do not cover operations and compensations in the course of being validated.

Breakdown of payments 
Detailing the amounts paid to ENEO within the last three years, the Treasury Director said direct treasury disbursements at the rate of one billion FCFA, every week, amounted to 76 billion FCFA, receivables transferred from the state hit 38, 899, 822, 872, while payments within the context of a protocol agreement with ENEO in 20221, was 143 billion FCFA.  
In relation to the 2022 protocol agreement with the same company in 2022, he disclosed that the State paid 41, 975, 618, 371 billion FCFA. This raised the amount to over 299. 8 billion FCFA.

Additional 30 billion FCFA to ENEO 
When blackouts hit the nation in the month of December 2023, following the shutting of gas-powered plants viz of the  Kribi Development Power Company, KDPC and the Dimbamba Development Power Company, DPDC, government again came to the rescue  of ENEO, he added.
Tella said as at December 15, 2023, the treasury paid 30 billion FCFA to ENEO. The debt ENEO owed GLOBELEQ, which runs the two plants as at that time was 106 billion FCFA. The 30 billion, the MINFI official said, was thanks to government’s resolve to monetise the debts of some state corporations. 
This stop-gap measure during the festive period, he said, raised the money from the State to ENEO to over 300 billion from December 1, 2021, to December 20, 2023.

Debts of companies serviced
Still within actions to further resolve what the MINFI senior official said is ENEO’s liquidity constraints, some public institutions’debts were taken care of. Some of these are: ALLUCAM, 17,083.123.261 billion FCFA; Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC over 4.9 billion FCFA; CICAM over 2.2 billion FCFA and the Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation, CAMWATER, over 5.6 billion FCFA.

Towards ensuring institutions pay own bills monthly
As government continues to work towards ensuring stability and sustainability within the country’s electricity sector, Tella said MINFI is already working towards getting institutions to henceforth pay their electricity bills monthly.  
He said ongoing discussions are meant to put an end to the vicious cycle of the State always coming to service the debts of public institutions in the form of unpaid electricity bills.
Even with the announced putting to use of power supply from the Natchtigal Dam, Tella said government is already pondering on the best mechanisms to arrest the challenges of the past.