Studies
Rural electrification. N/A N/A
Development of an Institutional Infrastructure Framework for an off-grid rural electrification programme and elaboration of the contractual frameworks required for small private service providers
| Country : | Cameroon. . |
| Client : | ARSEL (Agence de Régulation du Secteur Electrique, Cameroon) |
| Start Date : | 2003 |
| Completion Date : | 2003 |
| Value of services : | 99 400 € (+ 6.021 723 FCFA) |
| Funder : | World Bank |
| Associate/Partner : | Cabinet ORRICK |
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| Description : |
Electricity sector reforms in Cameroon are now focusing on the role that the private sector has to play in the provision of electricity services nation wide. The privatisation of the Société Nationale d’Electricité (SONEL) (national utility) by government decree in July 2001 reinforces this new national strategy within the electricity sector. Rural and dispersed areas distant from an electricity distribution network and not covered by an existing electricity concessionaire will now be open to private operators interested in providing electricity services – these will tend to be small operators (entrepreneurs, local communities, cooperatives, agro-industries with their own autonomous electricity generators etc.) who will tend to have very little experience in the provision of public services to users and who in particular will have limited financial capacities. This new framework within which private operators have a role to play in the provision of electricity services requires an institutional infrastructure framework that defines the functions, agents required to carry out these functions and the types of relationships required between these agents (contractual or code of conduct with the corresponding legal obligations of each agent : service operators, users and public body). The framework will have to be designed so as to ensure transparency between the agents and an understanding of each ones responsibility. |
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| Description of the Actual Services Provided | This study is in line with the Government’s strategy to provide access to private operators in the provision of electricity services so as to increase the rate of electricity provision in rural and unserved areas. The technical objective of IED’s intervention was to determine a suitable institutional infrastructure framework and to elaborate a set of contractual documents required for the different agents so as to ensure a clear definition of roles and responsibilities within the provision of electricity services in rural areas. IED was responsible for the full project implementation and management. |