To boost rural electrification: Afreximbank loans Cameroon 35 billion FCFA to light up over 200 localities.

Initiated in 2016 by the Ministry of Water and Energy, with the objective of electrifying 1,000 localities in Cameroon by solar photovoltaic system, the rural electrification project is currently being implemented.

In a decree signed on February 6, 2023, President Paul Biya had empowered the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, Alamine Ousmane Mey, to engage a loan agreement of 34.7 billion FCFA with the African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank.

The loan, it has been gathered, will be used for the partial financing of phase III of the rural electrification project, which will benefit 200 localities.

Recall that while speaking at the National Assembly in November 2020, Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, had announced that government had initiated the finalisation of the technical and administrative maturation of the third phase of the project which targets 200 localities.

The first phase, completed in 2018, allowed the commissioning of 166 solar power plants as well as the distribution networks, thanks to a loan of 53 billion FCFA from the Chinese technical partner, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

For phase II of the solar photovoltaic rural electrification project, a loan agreement of 71 billion FCFA with Bank of China for 184 localities with a budgetary allocation of 454,446 million FCFA as counterpart funds, were mobilised by government.

Once the 200 localities have been served, the number of localities already impacted by the project will hit 550 out of a scale of 1,000 that is a little more than half.