The future chief executive of Cameroon’s new state-backed electricity company, Socadel, will inherit more than a struggling utility.
He will inherit a tightly monitored performance contract built around a detailed scorecard.
According to a draft performance agreement attached to the restructuring plan prepared by the Ministry of Water and Energy (Minee) in March 2026, the head of Socadel — the company expected to succeed Eneo Cameroon — will be evaluated against 20 indicators covering finance, service quality, commercial performance, governance, safety, and human resources.
The mandate will run for three years and may be renewed once, depending on results. The framework also includes annual interim reviews by the board of directors and requires management to justify any missed targets and propose corrective measures.
From the outset, the state has made its priorities clear. Financial performance will account for 27% of the CEO’s overall score. Service quality carries the largest weight at 33%. Commercial performance represents 20%, followed by governance at 15% and safety-human resources at 5%.
In practical terms, the future head of Socadel will be judged above all on two fronts: restoring financial stability and improving electricity service quality.
Cash Comes First
The emphasis reflects the depth of the company’s financial difficulties. The restructuring plan describes an operator under near-permanent cash-flow pressure. Eneo’s total debt is estimated at nearly CFA850 billion.
Each month, the company bills around CFA40 billion, collects only CFA31 billion, and faces operating charges of about CFA44 billion. The result is a recurring monthly cash deficit of roughly CFA13 billion.
The plan also places the overall collection rate at about 77.5%, a level authorities consider insufficient given the sector’s obligations. In that context, debt collection becomes the first major test of recovery.
The performance framework sets a baseline collection rate of 72% for monthly billing receivables, with targets rising to 78% in 2026, 84% in 2027, and 90% in 2028. The contract also projects revenue growth of 4% in 2026 and 6% in both 2027 and 2028.
The logic is straightforward: without stronger collections, the rest of the recovery plan loses its foundation. But the government is not only asking the future CEO to sell and collect more. It also wants tighter control over how revenue is distributed across the electricity chain.
Compliance with the sector’s revenue-sharing mechanism is itself part of the evaluation criteria. The goal is zero deviation between the official allocation formula and the amounts actually paid to sector participants.
The contract also requires centralized revenue collection, real-time traceability of funds, and strict application of a distribution key approved by the state shareholder and the board of directors. The aim is to secure payments to independent power producers, the transmission company, and the water utility.
In a sector heavily affected by payment delays, this indicator carries nearly as much importance as cash-flow targets themselves. The contract adds several other requirements: improving self-financing capacity, maintaining a sustainable positive operating result, producing “accurate, regular, exhaustive and certified” financial reporting, facilitating shareholder-led audits, and cooperating fully with sector and financial diagnostics conducted under the PforR program.
The future CEO will therefore have to manage an emergency while simultaneously opening the company to auditors and consultants.
Service Quality Becomes the Main Operational Test
If cash is the first emergency, service quality is the first political test. At 33% of the total score, it represents the most important block in the evaluation framework.
The SAIDI indicator — which measures average annual outage duration per customer — must improve from 51.5 hours to 45.8 hours. SAIFI — which measures outage frequency — must fall from 20.1 interruptions per customer per year to 18.3.
The objective is to reduce both the frequency and duration of power cuts. The contract also sets a path for reducing technical and commercial losses. Technical losses must fall from 12.5% to 8.5% by 2028. Commercial losses follow the exact same trajectory.
The targets take on greater importance in light of the restructuring plan, which estimates total distribution losses at nearly 29% by the end of 2025, including about 12 percentage points in non-technical losses. The resulting annual revenue shortfall is estimated at about CFA60 billion.
In other words, service quality is not treated here as a secondary issue. It is viewed as a direct financial recovery tool. Socadel’s CEO will also be required to maintain an 80% annual execution rate for the investment plan.
Here too, the signal is clear: the government no longer wants an operator that documents emergencies without converting investment budgets into actual infrastructure work.
The document also sets availability targets for several power facilities: 94.8% for Songloulou by 2028, up from a baseline of 82.7%; 94.6% for Edéa, from 94.2%; 93% for Lagdo, from 90.9%; 93.73% for backup thermal plants; 83.73% for isolated thermal plants; and 90% for hybrid plants. The contract explicitly states that the CEO must guarantee the reliability and availability of power generation assets under the concessionaire’s control.
Prepaid Meters, Fraud and Connections at the Center of Revenue Strategy
The commercial component, which represents 20% of the final score, is designed as an extension of the financial recovery strategy. One of the main priorities is the gradual conversion of postpaid meters to prepaid systems.
Targets have been set at 55,347 conversions in 2025, 60,668 in 2026, and 42,574 in both 2027 and 2028. The plan notes that a first migration phase covering 50,000 meters in 2026 is already underway, which would raise the number of prepaid subscribers to 691,644.
The expected gains are twofold: around CFA200 million in monthly advance cash flow and about CFA20 million in monthly savings tied to meter reading and bill distribution.
On a larger scale, expanded migration could generate as much as CFA4 billion in advance liquidity per month, followed by an additional CFA1 billion after a second phase planned for the second half of 2027. Commercial costs could also fall by around CFA50 million per month.
The contract also sets ambitious connection targets. Authorities are aiming for 332,079 new connections in 2025, 364,010 in 2026, and 255,446 in both 2027 and 2028. The broader objective is clear: expand the customer base in order to strengthen the business model. Fraud remains another central issue. The restructuring plan treats it as a systemic problem rather than a simple commercial irritant.
The government has already launched the installation of 8,000 smart meters at medium- and low-voltage substations to identify fraud hotspots, while a national anti-fraud unit is also planned.
Expected gains are estimated at CFA500 million per month in 2026, followed by another CFA500 million in 2027. In a system where non-technical losses heavily reduce revenues, anti-fraud efforts become both a cash-recovery mechanism and a matter of economic governance.
A CEO Under Tight Oversight — and Heavy Dependence on the State
While the performance contract closely monitors the future CEO, it does not give management full control over all recovery levers.
The Minee plan makes clear that Socadel’s recovery will also depend heavily on state decisions.
On financial debt, authorities are considering refinancing nearly CFA177 billion in liabilities and short-term facilities through a banking pool capable of providing at least CFA150 billion over seven years, with up to two years of grace.
The expected gains are estimated at CFA2.5 billion per month in principal repayments and CFA200 million in interest savings.
Supplier debt reached CFA639.6 billion as of November 30, 2025, including CFA320 billion owed to public entities such as Sonatrel, EDC, Sonara, Arsel, and the FDSE. The plan proposes partial state intervention through a cross-debt compensation mechanism.
Public-sector unpaid bills also remain central to the equation. Monthly electricity bills from public entities amount to about CFA3.5 billion. The restructuring plan proposes several payment-securing mechanisms, including withholding arrangements expected to generate at least CFA2 billion per month from the first year, in addition to the CFA1 billion already paid monthly by the Ministry of Finance for government electricity consumption.
Outstanding public arrears — excluding public lighting, VAT prorating, and tariff compensation — stand at about CFA49 billion and are expected to be cleared gradually. The politically sensitive issue of tariff compensation also remains unresolved. Compensation for 2025 is estimated at CFA67 billion, later revised to CFA79 billion, while the 2026 projection stands at CFA39 billion.
The plan also explicitly opens the door to electricity tariff adjustments. For high- and medium-voltage customers, adjustments already initiated by regulator Arsel are expected to generate about CFA750 million per month by 2027.
For low-voltage customers, the ministry is considering a roughly 15% increase targeting professional consumers using more than 220 kWh, while households and small consumers would remain unaffected. Expected gains are estimated at CFA8.7 billion in additional monthly revenue by 2028.
The underlying message is clear: the future performance of Socadel’s CEO will also depend on politically sensitive decisions involving tariffs, public payments, and debt restructuring.
Governance has not been pushed aside either. The governance block represents 15% of the total score and includes the timely submission of certified financial statements, reliable reporting, compliance with procurement rules, and the implementation of internal control and risk-management systems.
One particularly revealing indicator concerns the timely payment of electricity producers and sector participants. Targets are set at 30% in 2026, 40% in 2027, and 50% in 2028.
Safety and human resources account for the remaining 5%, with the framework taking into account 51 workplace accidents recorded in 2024 as well as ongoing staff training obligations.
In other words, Socadel’s future CEO will not only have to stabilize the company financially. He will also have to rebuild internal decision-making, control, and operational systems.
On paper, the Minee estimates that expected gains could reach CFA7.245 billion per month by the end of the first year after the takeover, including CFA4.545 billion in additional revenue and CFA2.7 billion in lower operating costs.
Cumulative gains are projected at CFA12.773 billion after the second year and CFA17.943 billion by the third year.
At that level, the company’s average monthly deficit of CFA13 billion would theoretically disappear, with a surplus beginning to emerge.
But the numbers in the plan will matter only if they are executed. Socadel will have to improve collections, restore liquidity, normalize payments across the electricity chain, accelerate prepaid-meter deployment, expand its customer base, reduce losses, secure revenues, and finally improve a power service whose deterioration has weakened the entire sector.
That is where Oumarou Hamandjoda’s mandate truly begins — not in the sophistication of the indicators, but in their execution on the ground.
Amina Malloum and Baudouin Enama
