Simo Group Bridges Energy Gap in Rural Areas with Light Up and Power Cameroon

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

DOUALA, Cameroon – The General Manager of Simo Group Limited and enterprise in public and private sector development contracts, Moformi Svelte Nembo has said rural areas cannot be left without electricity as Cameroon’s approach has been to power the country by 2035 through universal access for electricity.

In collaboration with the government, Simo Group has seen the need to reinvest in rural electrification using Rural Solar, in partnership with Huawei. To Moformi Nembo, energy access for all is one of the key drivers of inclusive growth as it creates opportunities for women, youths and children both in urban and rural areas.

Cameroon’s energy potential is said to be enormous but only a fraction of it is being utilized. Hydropower provides around a fifth of current capacity but not even a tenth of its total potential is being employed. While the urban areas can boast an access rate of 87.6 per cent, rural areas are at only 28.4 per cent, thus underscoring the need to focus on rural electrification.

The situation is no different across the African continent where roughly half of the population lacks access to electricity, many people can’t buy milk from a refrigerated grocery aisle, or get an X-ray at their local hospital. There are 900 million Africans who lack clean cooking fuel; for them, cooking with wood, charcoal, and even waste, is part of daily life.

“We saw that this is the fastest way for us to reach universal access by 2025. The initial target was to power over 350 rural areas in Cameroon, and today we are opening up the Light Up and Power Cameroon, where we have requests from some of these rural areas,” Moformi Nembo said.

In an interview with Pan African Visions reporter in Douala, Littoral Region of Cameroon, Moformi Svelte Nembo, GM Simo Group said aside from being patriotic to his country, his goal is to commit himself to activities that will develop his community and increase the living conditions for everyone. One notable project is the solar electrification of 1, 000 localities across the country.

Can you shed more light on Simo Group? What is it about, services offered?

Moformi Nembo: Simo Group is a consultancy firm. Our major activities are the execution of contracts, especially sales partnership contracts, and building solutions to help our society, community and government. We are based in Douala and Yaounde.

Can you talk to us about the growth of Simo Group? How is it at the moment, in a troubling time like the current one in the country?

Moformi Nembo: In 2021, we launched our first debut into the market of consultancy. With the experience we had with expert and multinational companies reaching out to us to build a go-to-market strategy, like Flutterwave, when they launched in Cameroon, they reached out to us first.

We also have clients from the insurance and bank sectors reaching out to us to build their go-to-market strategy. Then we leveraged these partnerships we had as an early business. We then identified our niche so that we could do more and propel business growth through go-to-market strategy and consultancy by developing tailored solutions for enterprises and businessmen.

So, we had to bring a team of competent and energetic youth to build our network. With the experience we have building these products and services, we then believe that was a strong strength for us as a business.

Let's talk about the project that you are pushing now, Light Up and Power Cameroon. What necessitated the project?

Moformi Nembo: Today, the energy distribution in Cameroon is very strong, I'll tell you. The government is doing so much to ensure power distribution. And one of the major challenges we have is for this power to reach the rural areas. The approach has been to power Cameroon by 2035 through universal access to electricity. But then, are we going to leave the rural areas to be without electricity, waiting for this energy to be transmitted to them?

Cameroon has a very huge potential for renewable energy. Aside, we can maximize solar, which is the major strength we have today. These rural areas could use what they have. For example, we could easily build these solar development projects and let them have access to electricity to increase their economic activities as well.

So we reached out to Huawei for their open partnership network. We started with building a sales partner agreement with Huawei, and later they introduced us to their Smart PV solution. There they launched the Rural Solar, which is a project they are piloting today in Cameroon with the Rural Electrification Agency. So when we reached out to them, we saw the need for us to reach out to our own community's government to buy this product. Then Huawei now authorized us to be a sales partner for this solution. Then we started reaching out.

We saw that this is the fastest way for us to reach universal access by 2025. The initial target was to power over 350 rural areas in Cameroon, and today we are opening up the Light Up and Power Cameroon, where we have requests from some of these rural areas. Then we do a feasibility study, of the needs for energy by the population, and we design a model on how we can power these communities.

And do you feel like the government is accepting the idea?

Moformi Nembo: The government is very supportive of development. This has no challenge. The government has always encouraged development for rural communities.

So why the move to renewable energy, and what do you hope to achieve with the project?

Moformi Nembo: Renewable energy is clean energy, and it's low cost.

You talked about the fact that there is high electricity in urban areas, but in rural areas, it's not that much the same. Looking at the project at hand, how important is energy access for all?

Moformi Nembo: When you say energy access for all, energy is the basic need for everyone, you see. If the government is promising development to a particular group of people, no one should be exempted. Now the challenge is, that the population that has access to energy, according to reports we have from 2021 to 2024, is over 80% of the population, which is not true. That data is not true.

The access to energy is distributed to just about 65% of the total population of Cameroon, in the urban areas. Then imagine the rural areas. Still, in the urban areas, energy is not constant. The proportion that we receive for energy supply is not constant. That's why we have consistent power off, shortage, and all this, because the energy that is being needed for industries, the demand is usually very high. So households now tend to benefit from little or none. That is why we try to ration, and we also export energy to other countries. But now this is not a problem.

The problem is access to these rural areas. Some of these areas cannot receive poles, they cannot make connections. So what can be easy for us to do now is to use their confined environment. What we can do is renewable energy. It's the fastest way we can guarantee energy. Most of these areas have limited access to roads. And the infrastructure and development are not penetrating there easily. So what we can do, the fastest thing that can reach there for me is energy. Why? Because this energy can be produced where they are and distributed to them evenly.

What is Cameroon’s potential in terms of renewable energy? And how is it important for Cameroon?

Moformi Nembo: Energy for all, universal access to electricity can be possible in 2025 according to the presidential decree. The president has done so much to ensure that energy access is guaranteed by 2025. And this, for me, is the easiest way for us to achieve that through access to renewable energy.

Now, hydro energy is one of the major energy that is being used in Cameroon. It has more opportunities because of the dams that we are exploiting today. But again, renewable energy is cost-free, almost cost-free. I think just installation and maintenance that is needed, I think so. Cameroon needs to be powered.