IPA women tour Nachtigal dam, highlight investment incentives in energy project.

The visiting IPA delegation was briefed on the activities of the giant energy facility on Thursday, March 5. The visit to the energy installation was part of activities organized by IPA to mark the 2026 International Women’s Day.

IPA officials said the outing was authorised by the Interim General Manager, Boma Donatus, to allow staff to see first-hand the fruits of the institution’s investment facilitation role in supporting development projects. 

NHPC, it should be recalled, had in 2017 signed a convention with the NHPC, to benefit from government incentives designed to attract and facilitate foreign investment in the country.

During the visit, IPA women toured key installations linked to the project, which was fully commissioned on March 18, 2025. 

The dam, located on the Sanaga River, is one of the country’s major electricity production sites and contributes roughly 30% to the country’s power supply.

The Executive Assistant to the Interim General Manager of the IPA, Massoua Edith Hermine, explained that the visit aimed at understanding how the agency’s investment facilitation role supported the project. 

Massoua said the IPA serves as a one-stop shop for investors seeking to establish projects in Cameroon and provides support ranging from administrative facilitation to fiscal incentives.

“We facilitate investments into Cameroon, we fast-track investment, and we maintain investors in Cameroon,” Massoua told reporters during the visit.

Massoua added that the 2017 agreement with IPA enabled the NHPC to import equipment and materials more easily and benefit from fiscal advantages granted to large-scale investment projects.

“Signing a convention with the IPA facilitated the work for NHPC to easily come into the country, bring in their materials and benefit from exonerations that the government has set in place,” Massoua explained.

According to her, the agency’s role goes beyond attracting investors. She said through its monitoring and evaluation unit, IPA officials regularly follow up on investment projects to identify challenges faced by companies and relay them to the government.

“We also do policy advocacy. When investors face difficulties, they bring these issues to us at the IPA and we address them to the government so that investment can be facilitated,” she said.

Massoua added that the women of the agency decided to visit the dam to observe the outcome of the agreement signed years earlier.

“It was important for us to come and see what is actually going on. We are pleased to see that the installation is effective and that many homes in Cameroon are benefiting from it,” she said.

Impressed by results

Speaking to reporters, the Attaché to IPA Interim General Manager, Akoulouze Adèle, expressed satisfaction at seeing tangible results from a project the agency had supported from the outset.

“What impressed me was to learn that the 420 MW promised as installed capacity is actually being produced,” she told reporters.

Akoulouze added that the sector remains strategic for the country, noting that reliable electricity supply is essential for economic activity. She also highlighted the participation of Cameroonian engineers in the project’s construction. 

According to her, the participation of local engineers shows that technology transfer took place during the construction of the project.

“It means that in future projects we will have even more expertise locally, and perhaps soon we will reach 100 per cent realisation by Cameroonians,” she said.

About NHPC

NHPC Public Information Centre officer, CIP, Sante Vanessa Paradis, briefed the IPA delegation during the visit. She welcomed the agency’s continued engagement with the project and acknowledged the role of the IPA convention in seeing the dam through to completion. 

Paradis said NHPC is a Cameroonian enterprise incorporated in 2016 with five shareholders. She said the company was tasked with designing, financing, constructing and operating the Nachtigal hydroelectric plant. 

Construction began in February 2019 and was completed in 2025. The company is now in the operational phase and will run the facility for 35 years before transferring it entirely to the State of Cameroon.

The plant comprises seven turbines, each generating 60 MW, for a combined installed capacity of 420 MW. It holds a reservoir of 28 million cubic metres of water, a 1.2 km main dam, a 550-metre closure dam and a 3.3km supply canal. 

According to Paradis, the facility produces about 2,870 gigawatt hours of electricity annually using hydropower, which is considered a renewable energy source. 

She revealed that since commissioning, the plant has already surpassed three million megawatt hours of cumulative output.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3726 of Monday March 09, 2026