Vincent Bolloré, President of the group of the same name had a meeting with the Cameroonian Head of State, Paul Biya, on April 6, 2016 in Yaoundé. At the end of this meeting which comes in the midst of negotiations for the concession contract of the container terminal at the deep water Kribi port with the Bolloré-CHEC-CMA CGM consortium, Vincent Bolloré indicated having had “the honour of reviewing the situation” of the investments of his group in Cameroon.

Talking about the topics discussed during his meeting with President Biya, Vincent Bolloré revealed the interest of his group in the development of solar energy solutions in Cameroon. “You have a wealth here, the sun, which on first thought could be seen as a burden, but in reality is a source of energy (…) We did a first test at the University of Yaoundé I where, with 400 m2 of solar panels, we can stock enough energy to transport the students and their lecturers for free from one end of the campus to the other (…) Our goal is to do something different from this simple setup.

I am thinking particularly about villages where it is very expensive to bring electricity because of the need for electric poles. We could set up decentralised systems which fit in a container that you can put in a village and which will provide electricity”, Vincent Bolloré indicated at the end of the meeting.

While awaiting the implementation of eventual large scale projects in the solar sector in Cameroon, we learned from reliable sources that the Canal Olympia cinema, under construction on the campus of the Yaoundé I University will be entirely operated using solar power. As part of this project led by Vivendi, a group owned by Vincent Bolloré, a source close to the project indicates that 1,600 m2 of solar panels will be added to the 400 m2 currently installed on the campus of the Yaoundé I University, and which enable the functioning of the three electric buses made available to this university by the Bolloré group.

The manifestation of interest by this French logistics operator for the solar energy sector in Cameroon suggests that this country suffering from a deficit in the production of electricity, could soon benefit from the “blue zone” project implemented by the Bolloré group in some rural areas in Western Africa.

“Thanks to the electricity produced by fields of solar panels and stored in LMP battery containers, hectares of land with no access to the power grid are lit up, supplied in drinking water and connected to internet. These new areas foster the development of economic, cultural and sports activities”, the Bolloré group explains in a description of this project already implemented in Niger, Guinea, Togo and Benin.