(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s power utility Eneo reported that the electricity supply in the country’s northern regions (Adamaoua and Far North) has remained stable in the first half of 2024 despite a 10% increase in demand on the Northern Interconnected Network (RIN) The company stated that the higher demand was largely due to new industrial projects including the new cement production line at Cimenteries du Cameroun (Cimencam) in Figuil stability was achieved thanks to “good hydraulic conditions in 2023 in the Benue River basin and the availability of solar and thermal power plants.” despite sediment buildup and aging infrastructure the Lagdo Dam’s 75 MW power plant increased its production due to favorable rainfall which had often produced less than 30 MW in recent years two new solar plants with a combined capacity of 30 MW were added in Maroua (Far North) and Guider (North) celebrated the opening of the Maroua (15 MW) and Guider (15 MW) solar plants Built by the Norwegian independent power producer Scatec these plants have helped Cameroon join the ranks of major solar energy producers in Africa Eneo notes that these new solar plants had already ended power outages due to production shortfalls in the RIN during the first quarter of 2023 The agreement aims to nearly double their capacity to about 60 MW funded by a loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is expected to begin operating gradually from July 2025 the three northern regions account for 11% of Eneo’s more than 2 million active customers in Cameroon which translates to around 220,000 households and businesses These regions host important production units such as Société de Développement du Coton (Sodecoton) which supports over 200,000 cotton producers; Société d’Expansion et de Modernisation de la Riziculture de Yagoua (Semry) the top rice producer in Cameroon; and Cimencam a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim Maroc Afrique (LHMA) has recently launched a new 50 billion CFA franc cement production line in Figuil Kribi Bitumen Plant Set to Start Construction in 2025 with Government Backing CEMAC Bond Market Hits CFA 8.45 Trillion in March 2025, Interest Rates Drop Cameroon’s Timber Output Projected to Rise in 2025 Despite Higher Export Taxes Central Africa Stock Exchange Sees 98% Drop in Trading Value in Q1 2025 Every week the economy and investment news from Cameroon Mboa Paris Trains 30 Young Cameroonians to Boost Tech and Entrepreneurship Cameroon Audit Targets Former Officials for Mismanagement in Agricultural Project Camwater Seeks Global Bids to Launch Bottled Water Lines in Five Cities Bafoussam Workshop Highlights Benefits of Cameroon-EU Trade Agreement Cameroon Could Reach 350,100 Tons of Cotton in 2025 (Beac) Paul Biya Appoints Johnny Razack as Chair of Cameroon’s National Investment Company Cameroon Refuses Work Visa Renewal for Casino and Super U Boss Over Toxic Workplace Claims Cameroon Joins Global Charter to Fight Illegal Fishing The college of race commissioners for the competition declared Mimouni Oussama Abdallah winner after a consultation meeting held at the end of the race The second lap of the race from Figuil-Garoua on 1st June was perturbed by torrential rains which left the pathways flooded and nearly impossible for cyclists to continue biking cyclists were taken aback by a heavy downpour in Figuil which did not cease even after  they got to the finish line at the Garoua ceremonial ground Completely drenched by the heavy downpour that lasted for over three hours the cyclists managed to ride through flooded pathways and slowed down by a heavy fog that covered the roads The Figuil-Garoua stretch covered a distance of 102.7km but the unfavorable weather conditions forced the timekeeper to stop timing 92km into the race president of the race commissioners ordered the discontinuation of the race conferred the yellow jersey to Clovis Kamzong Abossolo The race commissioners then held a meeting whose outcome was the announcement of the winner of the lap in the person of Algeria’s Mimouni Oussama Abdallah He  came first within the first two hours 16 minutes and was consequently declared  winner of the lap Oussama had an hourly average speed of 40.44 km per hour closely followed by his compatriots Megnouche Hamza in the 2nd position Ben Youcef Abdallah in the 3rd position and Sahiri Ayoub in the 4th position winner of the first lap who retained the yellow jersey had a cumulative time of 5 hours 18 Minutes 53 seconds He was followed on the classification chart by three Algerians ; Mimouni Oussama Abdellah in the 2nd position Ben Youcef Abdullah in the 3rd position and Sahiri Ayoub in the fourth 4th position The three Algerians each have a cumulative time of three hours at least two hours behind the holder of the yellow jersey winner of the second lap of the tour is followed by Clovis Kamzong Abossolo and Kuéré Nounawé Rodrigue with a coverage time of two hours 10 seconds each in this lap a closed circuit race that covers a distance of 99 2 km will take place on Sunday 2nd June 2024 in Garoua Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec * mon e-mail et mon site dans le navigateur pour mon prochain commentaire Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Summary: This operations update extends the operation timeframe by an additional 2 months with an additional budget allocation of CHF 128,832 to; Reinforce public outreach / awareness-raising activities in the six localities in an effort to improve the populations’ sanitation and hygiene practices and thus combat the cholera epidemic in 12 districts (six additional districts) of the North Region of Cameroon Extend these activities into the six localities where new cases have been reported (Garoua I The DREF budget revision will cover the training (on Epidemic Control for Volunteers (ECV) manual); and deployment of an additional 50 volunteers and five supervisors (additional 10 volunteers and one supervisor per locality) in five existing localities (Figuil and Touboro); as well as an additional 130 volunteers and 13 supervisors in the six localities where new cases have been reported (Garoua I It will cover additional insurance costs; the CRC cholera focal point which will be needed in the field until the end of the DREF operation The Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT) member which has been deployed will also been required for one extra month (three months in total) to ensure the effective implementation of activities The RDRT will provide support to both the MDRCM018 and MDRCM020 operations which are being implemented concurrently in the Far North and North regions of Cameroon 2 months are budgeted against MDRCM018 and 3 months are budgeted against MDRCM020 since this operation closes a month later it is expected therefore that the DREF operation will have assisted an additional 26,000 people increasing the target population to 52,380 across the 12 localities The DREF operation will end on 5 February 2015 and a final report will be made available by 5 April 2015 (Three months after the end of the operation) Bibemi district located 64 km from the town of Garoua (capital of the North Region of Cameroon) experienced heavy rainfall (about 180 mm of precipitation),leading to widespread flooding Cameroon Red Cross (CRC) volunteers carried out an assessment and identified 77 cases of cholera and 8 deaths in the 6 districts affected by the epidemic the IFRC allocated CHF 179,304 from the Disaster Relief & Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the CRC response to the needs of the flood affected population as well as those affected by the Cholera epidemic over a period of three months The DREF operation was intended to support about 10 per cent (26,380 persons) of the affected population of 255,214 inhabitants in the six affected localities of Bibemi over 75 per cent of the activities planned have been implemented (Business in Cameroon) - Cement producer CIMENCAM recently registered a division dedicated to studies According to a legal announcement published on September 15 is a joint-stock company incorporated for a term of 99 years with CIMENCAM the majority shareholder in its XAF100 million capital the division will carry out all the studies and operations that directly or indirectly relate to the creation of construction materials production plants in Cameroon It will also carry out researches and exploit all the minerals directly or indirectly related to its corporate purpose the creation of this subsidiary is aimed at enhancing CIMENCAM’s position in Cameroon but it is also aimed at protecting the company against competitors who are planning to invest in the region CIMENCAM is eyeing a larger market constituted of Sahelian countries This is even why it was offered enough financial margin for its development the Figuil plant’s capacity has remained static at 150,000 tons yearly which is the lowest production capacity among all the cement plants in Cameroon the project aimed at extending its capacity to 600,000 tons to meet the demand from the Northern regions and neighboring countries like Chad and the Central African Republic has been on hold (Business in Cameroon) - CIMENCAM and the State of Cameroon will soon sign two mining agreements for the exploitation of the Bidzar and Biou marble quarries in Figuil Minister of Mines Gabriel Dodo Ndoke reveals “Two mining agreements -the last step before the attribution of exploitation permits- have been negotiated and will be signed in the next few days by the State of Cameroon and Cimecam for the exploitation of two marble quarries in Bidzar and Biou Figuil the official told the parliament on November 30 The official did not provide additional information but the Bidzar reserve has an estimated reserve of 2.5 million tons with continuity in Biou it was exploited by French company Rocaglia CIMENCAM obtained a research permit covering the deposit to meet its operational needs The notable ones are Lafargeholcim Maroc Afrique (55% stake) National Investment Corporation SNI (43% stake) the cement producer claims a workforce of 320 employees two grinding stations in Bonabéri (Douala) and Nomayos (Yaoundé) (Business in Cameroon) - Cement manufacturer Mira SA will soon launch the construction of an industrial complex in the North region of Cameroon Reliable sources revealed that the CFA120 billion infrastructure will integrate a clinker production unit with an annual capacity of 700,000 tons The completion of this project will make Mira SA the second largest clinker producer in the region the Prime Minister launched in October last year the construction of a new Cimencam plant in the town of Figuil This unit added 500,000 tons of cement and 1,000 tons of clinker to the company’s annual output Increased local clinker production is expected to drive down cement prices "If we manage to produce one million tons of clinker locally each year the price of a 50 kg bag of cement could fall to around CFA4,000 or CFA4,200 (compared to CFA5,400 and CFA5,500 currently initiated a few years ago a plan to exploit the limestone deposit of Mintom to produce clinker locally and help reduce cement prices in the country But the project could not be completed because nearly 70% of the deposit is submerged by the waters of the Dja River This scenario makes it more complex and costly to exploit this deposit whose potential is estimated at 540 million m3 by the Institute of Geological and Mining Research (IRGM) (Business in Cameroon) - Dangote anticipates an improvement in the Cameroonian cement market in the short term The Cameroonian subsidiary of the Nigerian Dangote Cement group announces sales of one million tons of cement in the country during the first nine months of 2023 With this 1.6% year-on-year sales increase the company claims 32.2% of a market estimated at 3.1 million tons during the period under review Dangote Cement Cameroon hopes to boost its performance shortly owing to the expected market improvement in local cement "The ongoing construction of highways between Douala and Yaoundé the construction of roads and bridges throughout the country and the increase in development projects in various regions are major projects that should stimulate short-term cement demand," the company expects after arriving in the Cameroonian market in 2015 breaking the 48-year monopoly of Cimenteries du Cameroun (Cimencam) Dangote Cement managed to take the market leadership from Cimencam within two years of operation Dangote Cement announced the construction of a 2nd plant in Yaoundé in 2015 the project aimed at doubling the cement manufacturer's capacity in the country to 3 million tons seems to no longer be a current priority within the Nigerian group After the new 500,000-ton plant inaugurated in 2019 in Nomayos the LHMA subsidiary announces the start of production of a new 500,000-ton line at its Figuil plant in the northern part of Cameroon This will increase its overall capacity to 2.3 million tons a coalition of Cameroonian civil society organisations will be presenting the results of a study entitled “EITI and mining governance in Cameroon: between rhetoric and reality Sub-national payments and transfers highlighted in Figuil” where companies such as Cimencam (the Lafarge group) and Rocaglia have been respectively producing cement and marble for over 50 years Relufa has drawn the following conclusions: “In the absence of revealing companies’ contractual clauses it is difficult to achieve the optimal or efficient supervision of payments; legal institutional and operational frameworks are poorly adapted and inadequate to monitor sub-national payments and transfers “there is virtually no social or economic monitoring by the local authorities; the non-divulgation of contractual arrangements and the low degree of community and district participation in the whole process (definition monitoring and evaluation) are operational obstacles to monitoring sub-national payments and transfers.” Relufa suggests that mining companies “negotiate and sign community development agreements with local districts and communities” It also recommends that the Cameroonian State “make decentralisation a principle of management and mining resource monitoring; develop and implement an operational framework that gives local communities their share of revenue; and define and adopt an EITI law.” the aim of this study financed by the Natural Resource Governance Initiative is “to demonstrate the urgency of making sub-national transfers and the importance of monitoring the social expenditure (of mining companies) in Cameroon the study explores the ways and means of appropriately integrating them in EITI (the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative whose new form includes analysis of sub-national transfers and social expenditure made by extractive companies) and lead mining to contribute more effectively and more deliberately to local economic and social development.”