Cameroon's president places power firm under state control

Cameroon has approved the renationalisation of the operator that produces and distributes electricity, according to a presidential decree published on Monday.

Eneo Cameroon, which supplies power to the country's nearly 30 million people, was privatised in 2001 but has regularly been faulted for frequent outages and unpaid bills.

The government decree, signed by President Paul Biya, said the state was now the sole shareholder in the public limited company.

In a further change, it will now be called the Cameroon Electricity Company (Socadel).

Government now owns 95% of power firm

The decision comes more than two months after Cameroon bought a 51% stake held by British investment fund Actis in Eneo for 78 billion CFA francs ($139 million).

The state already owned 44% of the company's shares. The transaction raised its stake to 95% of the capital, with the remaining 5% held by employees.

Cameroonian Minister for Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, chaired the first board meeting of the new entity on Tuesday in Yaounde, and made key appointments.

"The sector needs a break with past practices," he said.

Socadel, however, inherits a debt that stood at about 800 billion CFA francs at the end of 2024.