AES - SONEL becomes ENEO Cameroon

By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde

The American Electricity supply company, AES which merged competence with the Societé National d’Electricité to form AES – SONEL has adopted a new name; Energy of Cameroon – ENEO Cameroon. Management of the metamorphosed corporation has been taken over by British-based company ACTIS.

ACTIS Group 56% shares of the new corporation while the state of Cameroon owns 44%. ENEO has an installed generation capacity of 935 MW, connecting some 24 substations which include 1944.29 KM of high voltage lines, 15.081.48 KM of medium voltage lines and 15.209.25 KM of low voltage lines.

Unveiling the new name during a highly-attended ceremony in Yaounde last Friday, the general manager of ENEO, Joel Nana Kontchou said the new name identifies with the priorities of Cameroonians and the corporation in particular. He said the name was born out of suggestions that came from some 12,300 employees, customers and people of the local communities. “The change of name signals a new vision underway within the company. We hope that by including many people in the renaming, we have fopund a name that Cameroonians will identify with. With new objectives and new initiatives that should contribute in proposing to our customers a trademark, ENEO, in line with its historic mission proud of its new values drawing from the experience of its staff and innovative technologies in order to take up the challenges of today.”

According to Kontchou, three individuals who suggested Energy of Cameroon went home with symbolic cash prizes. They include; Messanga Christian Arnaud who went home with a cash prize of 2MFCFA, Bialeun Kamtchoum Jules who is manager of Gaz du Cameroun was awarded a cash prize of 500.000FCFA and Pemenzi Nsangou Florence Nadege who went home with a cash prize of 500.000FCFA.

ENEO’s distribution network consists of 11.450 KM of lines of 5.5 to 33 KV and 11.158 KM of lines of 220-230 KV. The corporation reportedly has a staff strength of some 3.600 workers with more than 900.000 customers, 45% of who live in the cities of Douala and Yaounde.

The name has however been contested by some inquisitive customers. During the ceremony to unveil the new name, the general manager came under scrupulous grilling from English speaking journalists who pointed out that the new name was grammatically wrong. The journalists argued that instead of Energy of Cameroon, it should simply have been Cameroon Energy.

But the manager hummed that the essential thing was not the grammatical aspect of it but the idea behind. The GM explained that E stands for Energie while NEO stands for Nouveau.