11,000 Cameroonian villages still without electricity, says ARSEL

According to the Director of Studies at the Electricity Sector Regulation Agency (ARSEL in French), Issiaka Fonfatawouo, 11,000 Cameroonian villages are still without the comforts of electricity. He observed the reason is simply that “the rural electrification projects, due to their structural shortcomings and small scale, seldom attract the attention of corporations who  prefer larger projects with greater potential financial gains'..

According to the ARSEL director, “In light of the minimal interest electricity companies have shown in rural electrification, solar energy projects and other renewable energy projects can play a major role in the provision of electricity to rural areas.”

It is certainly because of this that ARSEL revealed, in March 2015, the results of the search for sites for renewable energy in Cameroon. There is a total of 300 sites in total, of which 261 can accommodate small 5 MW hydroelectric plants and 35 sites able to produce electricity using biomass.