Three projects financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) for US$121.4 million in 2010-2011 are starting to provide Cameroon with more reliable electricity supply, the bank said.
Although Cameroon has suffered power supply for years, it has the second-largest hydroelectric potential in Africa and the 18th worldwide with an estimated 23,000 MW hydroelectric production capacity.
In a statement given on Thursday, AfDB said the Lom Pangar storage reservoir project was complete, although the dam’s generating plant was still under construction. Two other power plants, Kribi and Dibamba, had begun working to strengthen the country’s generating capacity.
In November 2011, The African development bank awarded $62.9 million for the construction of Lom Pangar in the country’s eastern region and a 30 MW hydroelectric generating plant still under construction at the base of the dam. Lom Pangar will provide electricity to 150 locations and significantly reduce power cuts.
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On March 2018, the General Director of the Electricity Development Corporation (EDC) Theodore Nsangou said the Lom-Pangar dam would help save water in other reservoirs.
In July 2011, the bank gave $32.8 million for the construction of the 216 MW capacity Kribi gas-fired generating plan which started operating in 2013. The funding was for an expansion of the project. The plant aims at producing 330 MW.
The 86 MW Dibamba heavy fuel oil generating plant was the first of the three plants to receive $25.6 million from AfDB in April 2010. The plant is located in the outskirts of Douala, Cameroon’s second-largest city.
The Kribi gas-fired generating plant and the Dibamba generating plant provide electricity for close to half of Cameroon’s population.
AfDB awarded a funding package of $154.8 million for the construction of the Nachtigal hydroelectric generating plant which began this year and will be completed in about five years, with an estimated generating capacity of 420 MW. Cameroon plans to complete its hydroelectric industries development by 2035.
The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution which comprises of three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). The bank is in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan. It contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states.
