(Ecofin Agency) - While chairing on 18 January 2017 in Yaoundé, the discussion panels on the power grid update programme for the period covering 2016 to 2022, the Minister of Water and Energy (Minee), Basile Atangana Kouna, revealed that Cameroon will invest FCfa 800 billion in this endeavour.

To this effect, the Minee indicated, the management of said programme was given to the Société nationale de transport d’électricité (Sonatrel – National Power Grid Company) created on 8 October 2015. With regards to the financial aspect, he assured, the Cameroonian government has initiated successful approaches with some international lenders. Which for example led, according to the Minee, the World Bank Board of Directors to approve, in December 2016, a financing of USD 325 million for a section of the power grid project. The signature of the corresponding loan agreement is imminent, the Minister specified.

Basile Atangan Kouna also welcomed the fact that loan to finance structures to remove the energy to be produced by the Warak hydroelectric plant (75 MW) on the Birni River was signed in 2016. Moreover, still based on his comments, the processes to raise the funds for the “Yaoundé Loop” component awarded to the Spanish company Elecnor are moving along smoothly. The signature of the corresponding loan agreement should be completed latest by February 2017.

S.A