Such was the outcome of the High-Level Dialogue on Cameroon’s Electricity Sector Recovery Plan and the role of the World Bank Group. The meeting held on 8 June 2023 in Yaounde, under the chairmanship of Alamine Ousmane Mey, the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), in the presence of various members of the Government and Technical and Financial Partners.

This major workshop aimed to discuss with various stakeholders in the energy sector, on how to set up a conducive framework for improving the public electricity service and restoring the sector’s financial equilibrium. Cameroon, currently produces close to 1,652 megawatts and intends to achieve 5,000 megawatts by 2030. Thus, an Electricity Sector Recovery Plan prepared by the Ministry of Water and Energy was adopted in February 2023 to implement reforms, actions and measures to pave the way for Cameroon’s energy and electricity emergence.

The World Bank Group shall provide 300 million dollars, or roughly 184 billion CFA francs, for this project, which is worth around 420 billion CFA francs. During this high-level dialogue, Mr Gaston Eloundou Essomba, the Minister of Water and Energy, explained that these funds will be used, among other things, to improve transit capacity and build new stations and transmission lines to supply industries. There is also need to improve collection, and focus on smart meters and prepaid meters, even for public buildings.

This Recovery Plan, intended to cover the 2023-2030 period, focuses on 7 points, one of the main ones being the search for financial equilibrium and improving the energy mix. So far, there exists hindrances to energy distribution in Cameroon. The energy mix is still dominated by fossil fuels, and there are difficulties in mobilising financing and losses in distribution, all of which have led the Government and its Technical and Financial Partners to set up an emergency plan to capitalise on the Nachtigal dam, which they hope will be a real opportunity.