The African Development Bank (AfDB) has just allocated about 313 million Euros to Cameroon. More than three quarters of this loan is intended to finance two projects relating respectively to rural electrification and climate resilience.
Nearly 8.9 million farmers, including 6.5 million in Cameroon and 2.4 million in Chad, will soon be connected to the electricity network. The Electricity Interconnection Project between these two Central African countries has just received partial funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB). It is a loan of around 148 billion CFA francs, or 226 million Euros, out of nearly 457 million euros necessary for the project. The global will now have to be supplemented by Chad.
The interconnection of the electricity networks of Cameroon and Chad will allow the two countries to optimize their energy resources through the integration of infrastructure for the production, transport and distribution of electric energy. This involves the construction of high voltage lines, with a total length of 1024 kilometers (786 km in Cameroon and 238 in Chad), to electrify 478 localities identified along these lines (409 in Cameroon and 69 in Chad) . Besides regional integration, the aim of this project is to increase the rural electrification rate in the two countries itself.
In Cameroon, data from the Rural Electrification Agency indicate that nearly 22% of localities in rural areas are connected to the electricity network, for a rural electrification rate which barely reaches 20% at the national level. And yet rural electrification has ecological advantages, reducing the pressure of populations on forests, better controlled irrigation of fields and here it will also make it possible to fight more effectively against the advance of the desert.
The other climate impact project that the AfDB has just financed in Cameroon concerns the country part of the Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Program in the Niger Basin (PIDACC), which receives the sum of 4.92 billion CFA francs. , or around 7.5 million euros. This project, which brings together the nine countries sharing the Niger basin, aims overall to improve the resilience of the populations and ecosystems of the Niger river basin through sustainable management of natural resources.
The signing of loan agreements for a total amount of approximately 205 billion CFA francs (nearly 313 million euros) took place by exchange of notes between the AfDB and the Minister of Economy, planning and Regional Development “The execution of these projects demonstrates Cameroon’s commitment to further consolidate its economic growth, by strengthening the sub-regional integration process, improving access for populations to electrical energy, preservation of the environment… ” Alamine Ousmane Mey declared. In total, three projects are being financed in Cameroon by the AfDB, because another loan in the amount of 55.10 billion CFA francs (nearly 84 million Euros) was granted for the development of livestock and fish farming value chains (PD-CVEP).
