Energy Supply

AES hands over officially to British firm Actis
The British energy firm Actis has officially taken over from American firm AES, as the biggest shareholders of the Cameroon Energy Supplier, SONEL. The transfer was done at a solemn ceremony at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel on Friday 23 May 2014.
     The Cameroon government was represented at the transfer ceremony by two ministers; Atangana Kouna of energy and water and Alamine Ousmane Mey of Finance. The two ministers signed the contract admitting Actis as the new managers of the biggest energy supply company in Cameroon-Sonel. The Managing Director of Actis, David Grylls signed the contract for the British company.

    Actis bought over the stakes of AES in the Sonel Company several months ago. We could not immediately get the cost of the transfer deal. The new company has pledged to maintain all the personnel of Sonel. Actis takes over a Sonel company which proved unable to solve the energy crisis in the country. AES’s will be remembered for the regular power cuts they inflicted on Cameroonians..
Cameroon currently produces about 1033 mega-watts of energy for a population of about 22 million people. Observers say this is grossly inadequate especially as barely less than 850 thousand people have access to electricity. Four thermal plants of 100 mega-watts capacity each that were built by government to boost energy production became too costly for government to run. They have virtually been abandoned. The Kribi thermal plant with its 260 mega-watts capacity could not make good the lag.
    That is why Actis plans to invest about FCFA 11 billions by 2015 to produce about 5000 mega-watts of energy. The investments would boost the capacities of the Kribi, Dibamba and Songlulu plants.