Amine Homman Ludiye is the new CEO of Cameroon’s power utility, ENEO. The Moroccan was appointed on June 26, in Yaoundé during an extraordinary board meeting of the company. ENEO is controlled (51%) by Actis, the British investment fund.

ENEO’s new boss replaces Belgian Patrick Eeckelers who resigned on June 26 also. The latter quit after holding the helm for barely a year, but not without cause.

A troubled reign

When he took over the utility in April 2022, Patrick Eeckelers initiated a reorganization that focused on cost management. On June 7, 2022, he dissolved the inspectorate general, seen as costly, and placed the fight against fraud under the supervision of the deputy director of security. This led to tensions and power struggles within the organization.

On August 17, 2022, Eeckelers was even arrested and questioned for nearly two hours at the Judicial Police Headquarters in Yaoundé before being released. According to some of his co-workers, this was the Belgian’s most humiliating experience.

However, three months after the former CEO was released, on November 23, ENEO’s board had “encouraged (ed.note: him) to continue with the ongoing reorganization of the company to effectively address the challenges of our ambitious operational plan,” as stated in a note issued to the staff after a board meeting. Eeckelers’s organizational adjustments were approved. The general secretariat, where he believed part of the opposition against him was orchestrated, was dissolved, and the tariff and regularization units, strategy, internal control, and reporting were directly attached to him.

Still, all this was not enough to restore the Belgian’s trust who now feared for his safety, especially because those behind his arrest, which he considered arbitrary, were not held accountable. “This case knocked him down,” said one of his colleagues. Right after quitting the company, Patrick Eeckelers left the country.

A new boss, a new fire

Amine Hommane Ludiye, the ENEO’s new CEO is described as a very ambitious executive. For many, the Moroccan’s appointment is not surprising, given that he was said to be eager to take over the firm at the apex of the Eeckelers crisis. 

Ludiye joined ENEO in 2021 as Deputy CEO in charge of production. At the time, he was expecting to replace Eric Mansuy, who sat at the top chair before Patrick Eeckelers stepped in, in March 2022. After joining, the Moroccan became an Actis representative on the board, further boosting his hopes to one day lead the utility.

Roadmap

Amine Hommane Ludiye is set to officially take over today, June 29. One of the key missions laid out for him by ENEO’s board chairman, Séraphin Fouda, is restoring serenity within the company.

“He’s been asked to do everything possible to improve the social climate, particularly by focusing on regional balance and gender promotion,” said a source who took part in the board meeting held on June 26. Similarly, as Secretary-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Fouda instructed the former CEO of Engie North Africa to examine the issue of the Common Initiative Group for Socioeconomic Promotion of Staff (Gic-P Eneo) and propose solutions to resolve the crisis

Since 2017, when the staff acquired a 5% stake in the company through Gic-P Eneo, no dividends have been distributed. Some individuals are becoming impatient and want to sell their shares, especially since the prospect of the government buying out Actis’s shares does not reassure these minority shareholders.

According to Séraphin Fouda, calming the social climate is essential considering the challenges facing Eneo. For instance, the electricity provider must prepare to commercialize the first kilowatts of electricity from the Nachtigal hydroelectric plant by the end of this year to fulfill contractual obligations. This involves paying the Nachtigal Hydro Power Company (NHPC), the entity managing the production infrastructure, XAF10 billion per month for the purchased energy. “To achieve this, the PCA has called for an acceleration of the pole replacement program, network expansion to serve new customers, particularly industrial clients, and the acquisition of meters,” detailed a participant in the board meeting.

To mobilize the necessary funds for these investments, Amine Hommane has been advised to prioritize multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank or the African Development Bank, which offer better borrowing conditions. However, his two predecessors have failed to convince the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s arm dedicated to the private sector, to provide the ENEO a financing of XAF210 billion for over three years. Internal sources point to the need for improved governance as well as better relations with the government and its entities, ENEO’s primary client. Since May 2023, both parties have struggled to agree on the value of the State’s debt to the utility. This is also one of the main issues that Amine Hommane Ludiye has to tackle. It should be noted that Actis expects him to enhance the company’s attractiveness as it may sell the government its stake in the company.

Source: Business in Cameroon

On June 20, 2023, Cameroon’s Acting Minister of Industry, Fuh Calistus Gendry, visited the site that housed the Cellucam, the former public paper pulp maker that went bankrupt in 1982.

The official went to check progress made on the site’s rehabilitation and according to local newspaper Cameroon Tribune, Cametal, the company in charge of the project, failed the contract’s terms. Gendry addressed the company’s management with a formal notice urging them to get back in line.

Indeed, it appears that since it took over the contract, on July 8, 2021, Cametal mostly engaged in scrap metal collection, and has not met its obligations regarding the dismantling and deconstruction of scaffolding, pollution control, and equipment decontamination, or building rehabilitation. The project’s monitoring committee pointed out that the progress rates reported by the contractor were not always correct.

Once rehabilitated, the former Cellucam site is expected to host several companies. One of these is the Société camerounaise d’industrialisation et d’exploitation du bois (Scieb), which plans to set up a wood technopole on the site. According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Cameroonian government on May 12, 2020, in Yaoundé, 80 billion FCFA should be invested in this project.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon remains the largest energy supplier in the Cemac region, with a total installed capacity of 1,750 MW, equivalent to the combined capacities of Congo, Gabon, and E. Guinea.

In a special report focused on energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development revealed that the country holds the largest share of installed power in the Cemac region, accounting for 48% of the total capacity of 3,700 MW. Gabon follows with 780 MW, representing 21% of the sub-regional total, ahead of Congo with 640 MW (18%), and Equatorial Guinea with 350 MW (10%). These figures imply that the capacity of the Songloulou hydroelectric dam (384 MW) in Cameroon surpasses that of Equatorial Guinea as a whole.

Despite this lead over other Cemac countries, Cameroon still faces significant challenges in providing efficient electricity access to its entire population. To address this issue, the country has undertaken multiple energy projects in recent years. As a result, all turbines of the Nachtigal dam (420 MW) are set to be operational by 2024. This single infrastructure project will then account for nearly 66% of Congo’s current total capacity and about 54% of Gabon’s.

However, compared to other African countries with the same level of development, Cameroon is behind. For example, Côte d’Ivoire has an installed capacity of 2,230 MW, 480 MW more than its Central African peer. This means that even the full commissioning of its Nachtigal dam will not bring Cameroon to the same level as Côte d’Ivoire. Also, around 10% of Côte d’Ivoire’s electricity production is exported to other West African countries (Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Liberia, notably), whereas Cameroon often finds itself in production deficits of up to 100 MW at certain times of the year, according to its power utility Eneo. Similarly, the Central African country is only aiming for a capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030, while its West African counterpart rather eyes 6,000 MW.

The major barrier to a developed electricity sector, according to Cameroonian authorities, is the lack of financial resources to carry out projects and the shortcomings in the country’s energy policy. Yet, the country boasts the third largest hydroelectric potential in sub-Saharan Africa (12,000 MW), behind the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The Bank of Central African States (Beac) has presented its view on how the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has impacted the Cemac economies in 2022. In a recent economic and statistical bulletin, the institution observed a V-shaped impact resulting from the conflict.

On a good note, “the economic growth went from 1.8% in 2021 to 2.9% in 2022 thanks to a good impetus in the oil and gas sector in the region, despite a slight decline in the non-oil sector”. However, before the war started, Beac was expecting a 3.2% growth, meaning the war caused a loss of 0.3pts.

Although there has been an improvement in the prices of crude oil and natural gas on the international market, with positive financial repercussions for Cemac countries, demand was less vigorous. Beac points out that gross domestic demand has made a smaller contribution to Cemac growth in 2022, even though it remains the main driver of real growth in the region (2.1 points in 2022, against 7.4 points in 2021), with a slight decline in the contribution of private consumption (3.5pts in 2022, against 4.0pts in 2021) and that of public consumption and gross investment (- 1.1 points and – 0.4 points respectively).

The Russia-Ukraine war has also triggered strong inflationary pressures in the Cemac, as many countries in the region depend on Russian wheat and construction raw materials from Ukraine. In 2022, due to higher food prices, inflation rose to an annual average of 5.6% and 6.7% year-on-year, compared with 1.7% and 2.6% respectively a year earlier. Before the outbreak of the war, Beac forecasted inflation to be 2.1%.

A good point of the conflict, Beac found, is an improvement in the public finances of Cemac countries as a result of “the upward trend in the prices of exported products (…), particularly crude oil”. Overall, the budget balance, including grants, reached 2.5% of GDP in 2022, compared with -1.2% of GDP in 2021. Before the start of the crisis, it was forecast at 0.5% of GDP, an increase of 2.0 percentage points.

About money supply and its counterparts, the Beac noted “a surge in the monetary system’s net foreign assets, which doubled to CFA2,863.8 billion; a 4.7% deceleration in the monetary system’s net claims on CEMAC countries, to CFA8,585.1 billion; a 7.7% rise in loans to the economy, to CFA9,912.3 billion; and a currency coverage ratio of 73.1% (against 64.0% in 2021), up 6 basis points on the level projected before the war”.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroonian customs officials from the Active Group of the South-West region seized eight trucks loaded with cocoa beans on the night of June 18-19, 2023. The cocoa was being smuggled to Nigeria. The exact quantity seized will be known after the trucks are unloaded, officials reported.

Achille Kandem, who heads the group behind the seizure, said the trucks were seized in the towns of Mamfé, Ekok, and Besong Abang.

“I would like to take this opportunity to commend the synergy between customs and the defense and security forces, particularly the police, gendarmerie, and Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR). I also salute the courage of all these men who did not hesitate to venture into the forest at night, in this insecure area, to track down the fraudsters,” he added.

A few days before the seizure, Cameroon officially suspended the export of its cocoa to Nigeria- A decision made by the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, after a crisis meeting held on June 13, 2023, in Yaoundé. This meeting was in response to concerns voiced by local cocoa actors about the increased smuggling of Cameroonian cocoa to Nigeria.

In a circular note dated June 13, 2023, and addressed to administrative authorities in cocoa-planting zones, Minister Atangana wrote: “It was noted that for the 2022-2023 cocoa campaign, the volume of fraudulent exports, mainly to Nigeria, has reached unprecedented levels, between 30,000 and 60,000 tons, which represents 10% to 20% of national cocoa production, and costs the public treasury about CFA10 billion, in terms of exit rights and export royalties, and a net loss of about CFA60 billion in terms of repatriation of foreign exchange.”

Source: Business in Cameroon

The first annual meeting of the board of directors of Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SHN) was held on 13 June, where the initial purchase deal of Savannah Energy’s assets in the Chad-Cameroon pipeline was put on the shelf.

Adolphe Moudiki, managing director of Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), has suffered another setback in his bid to buy shares in Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (Cotco), which manages the Cameroon side of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline.

Following the board of directors’ meeting held in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé on 13 June, the acquisition by SNH of 10% of Savannah Energy’s assets in Cotco was “frozen” following a decision by the chairperson of the board Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, who is also secretary general of the presidency.

Arm wrestling

Contested by Chad, the initial agreement – which was concluded on 19 April and amounted to $44.8m – has been at the heart of a tug-of-war between the Chadians and Cameroon.

The quarrel came to a head the following day, on 20 April, with the recall of the Chadian ambassador based in Yaoundé. Since then, Cameroon has stepped up its efforts to mollify tensions, with President Paul Biya sending Ngoh Ngoh to N’Djamena for talks with Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.

Biya also asked his trade minister, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, to pass on Cameroon’s agreement for Chad to buy out the assets of Malaysia’s Petronas in Cotco to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

This “corporate open sesame” – essential under regional agreements – should enable N’Djamena to hold 53.7% of the shares in the company that manages the Cameroonian section of the pipeline – an objective that Déby Itno and his government were particularly keen to achieve.

A freeze, before the rest

However, N’Djamena did not accept Savannah Energy’s presence and remained determined to oust it from Cotco. A new round of negotiations was then held in Paris on 24 May at the Cotco board meeting.

The Chadian side – supported by Menguele Judith Clairence, the Cameroonian finance ministry representative on Cotco’s board – came up against Moudiki, who was in favour of maintaining the agreement with Savannah. The meeting ended without a definitive winner.

A few days later, however, the SNH chief attempted to replace Clairence. On 8 June, he was turned down by the presidency, which thereby signalled its agreement with Chad. Five days later, in a new round of talks, Ngoh Ngoh, obtained a freeze on the deal between Savannah and the Cameroonian oil and gas company.

The Chadian government has taken note of this decision, quietly welcoming it. But the decision is not yet final, as further negotiations are undoubtedly still to come on Cotco’s shareholding structure.

It appears that this oil dispute being contested by N’Djamena and Yaoundé is far from over.

Source: Africa Report

Cameroon has installed surveillance cameras in Douala to enhance security, an official has said.

The newly installed cameras are aimed at ensuring wider online monitoring and surveillance as well as helping police curb crime, said Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary general of the presidency.

The move is one of the answers to new forms of crime and persistent terrorist attacks and threats to public order in some parts of the country, Ngoh said Thursday while officially inaugurating the National Command Center for video surveillance in Douala, the economic capital of the country.

Cameroon aims to eventually install 24,000 surveillance cameras in its 10 regional capitals as well as border towns, Ngoh said.

Source: Xinhuanet

South African mobile operator MTN Group (MTNJ.J) said on Wednesday that its Cameroon operations were threatened by the seizure of its bank accounts in the country as part of a dispute in which it plays no part.

MTN Cameroon’s accounts with more than 14 billion CFA francs ($22 million) have been frozen by Cameroon court order since September 2022, as the company was brought into a loan dispute by a Cameroonian businessman, MTN said.

Following a court decision on June 9, the funds were to be transferred into an escrow account managed by the court registrar, MTN Cameroon CEO Mitwa Ng’ambi told a press conference in Douala on Wednesday.

“A threat to our operations is a threat to everything we have built in service to Cameroon over the last 23 years,” she said, adding that the company will use “all possible means to put an end to the imminent miscarriage of justice”.

MTN is Africa’s largest mobile carrier and its Cameroon subsidiary has one of the biggest networks in the country, with over 12 million users.

Ng’ambi said the matter has caused difficulties in paying service providers and employees and could hurt MTN’s more than 800 Cameroonian employees and an additional 200,000 people who work for suppliers and others.

The controversy stems from a dispute between Cameroonian business mogul Ahmadou Baba Danpullo and South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) (FSRJ.J) over a real estate loan, said MTN’s Ng’ambi.

After the bank liquidated a number of properties belonging to Danpullo in South Africa, the businessman retaliated by having a Cameroonian court freeze the accounts of South African companies including MTN and Chococam, owned by Tiger Brands, she said.

Melvin Akam, MTN Cameroon general manager of regulatory and corporate affairs, said the seizure of the company’s accounts was “abusive, fraudulent and unacceptable.”

A spokesperson for Danpullo’s company, the Baba Danpullo Group, declined to comment.

South Africa’s foreign ministry on Tuesday urged company executives to continue pursuing all legal avenues available.

“Unfortunately, these latest developments will challenge the extent and appetite for investments into Cameroon,” it said.

($1 = 628.7500 CFA francs)

Source: Reuters

Cameroonian Jacques Edjangue has been confirmed Thursday as the Vice President for People and Talent Management of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group. Since June 20, 2022, Edjangue had held the same position but as an interim, after stepping down as Acting Director of the Human Resources Management Department and the Language Services Department.

Jacques Edjangué holds an MBA from Colorado State University, USA, a degree in English Literature from the University of East Anglia, UK, and a degree in Leadership and Negotiation from Harvard University, USA. He holds two Master’s degrees from the University of Buea in Cameroon, one in interpretation and the other in translation. He also holds a Master’s degree in Afro-American literature from the University of Yaoundé I.

Before joining the AfDB 21 years ago, Jacques Edjangué headed the language and conference services of the Secretariat of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities, set up by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. He was also the personal interpreter for Ketumile Masire, former President of Botswana and facilitator of the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Appointed deputy director and deputy permanent representative at the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF) in 2000, he represented the OIF at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He has 28 years of experience in multinational institutions.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The Chad-backed meeting of Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO) in Paris in late May contravened regulations, according to a letter from Cameroon’s Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH).

In order to make it right, Chad must take a number of steps – including transferring equity in COTCO to Cameroon.

The SNH letter, signed by Chairman Adolphe Moudiki, noted that it had not attended the meeting, nor had the Cameroonian company received a notice of the meeting.

Chad, last week, said the COTCO meeting had taken a number of steps changing the shareholder make up. In particular, it targeted an ExxonMobil unit, now owned by Savannah Energy. The meeting involved the dismissal of all directors nominated by Savannah Energy.

Moudiki’s letter said SNH had received copy of correspondence to Citibank Cameroun on shareholders in COTCO. The SNH official addressed his letter to Chad Minister of Petroleum and Energy Djerassem Le Bemadjiel.

Moudiki requested the minister provide the resolutions passed at the meeting.

Given SNH’s absence from the meeting, Moudiki said the “resulting resolutions would appear to be irregular, as they contravene COTCO’s statutory rules on the convening and holding of General Meetings”.

Meeting conditions

Moudiki noted that Chad’s acquisition, via Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT), of Petronas’ stake in COTCO came with a number of conditions.

COTCO shareholders must continue to be represented on the board, Chad may only appoint four directors and SNH should receive an increased share in the pipeline.

Chad should transfer a 20% stake in COTCO to SNH, the chairman said. This would reduce Chad’s share from 53% to 33.77%, while Cameroon would have 35.17%. Cameroon President Paul Biya backed such a redistribution, he said.

Moudiki closed by asking the Chadian minister to ensure COTCO continued to operate efficiently. Chad should not allow the shareholder crisis to have an impact on the pipeline venture, Moudiki said.

Source: Energy Voice