Cameroon Begins Building National Energy Accounts to Strengthen Energy Planning
The country has launched work on its first national energy accounts with support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the World Bank, aiming to improve energy planning, climate policy and investment decisions.
Cameroon has taken a significant step toward strengthening its energy planning and climate policy framework with the launch of a process to develop national energy accounts, a statistical tool designed to measure how energy production and consumption interact with the economy and the environment.
The initiative is being supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), working alongside Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics (NIS) and the World Bank through the HISWACA Project. A five-day workshop underway in Douala from June 22 to 26 is bringing together government agencies, energy sector institutions, development partners and technical experts to lay the groundwork for compiling the country’s first energy accounts.
The exercise aims to identify available data sources, assess technical and institutional requirements, and establish a roadmap for producing energy accounts in line with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), the United Nations’ internationally recognized framework for integrating environmental and economic statistics.
Energy accounts provide governments with detailed information on energy extraction, production, transformation, trade and consumption across different sectors of the economy. They also capture environmental impacts associated with energy use, including emissions and other residuals released into the environment.
Additionally, officials said the data will help policymakers better understand how energy contributes to economic growth, which sectors consume the most energy, and how energy policies affect employment, industrial development and greenhouse gas emissions. The information is expected to play a key role in shaping investment decisions as Cameroon seeks to meet rising energy demand while advancing its energy transition goals.
The move comes as African countries face growing pressure to balance economic development with climate commitments and energy security concerns. Reliable and integrated energy statistics are increasingly viewed as essential for evidence-based policymaking and long-term infrastructure planning.
For Cameroon, the development of energy accounts aligns with the country’s Vision 2035 agenda and the National Development Strategy 2020–2030, both of which prioritize structural transformation, industrialization and sustainable energy development.
The accounts are also expected to support monitoring of progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly targets related to affordable and clean energy, climate action and sustainable resource management.
Furthermore, the Douala workshop represents the first operational phase of the project and will focus on identifying stakeholder needs, evaluating existing datasets and addressing information gaps that could affect future compilation efforts.
The initiative forms part of Cameroon’s National Plan for the Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting, adopted in 2023 as the country’s roadmap for implementing environmental-economic accounting systems. Under the plan, energy accounts have been identified as a priority area for strengthening national statistical capacity and improving policy coordination.
Essentially, ECA’s support includes technical assistance, methodological guidance based on international standards and expertise from specialists, including contributors from the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics, as Cameroon moves toward establishing a comprehensive energy accounting system.
Go to ECONEWS.co.ke for more sustainability news from the African continent and across the world.
Follow us on WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, and Facebook, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any future updates. Send tips to editorial@techtrendsmedia.co.ke
