Cameroon is a rural country. More than70 percent of its people live in rural areas. In 1995, of13,000 villages in Cameroon, only about 1,500 were connectedto the national electricity grid. Most of Cameroon's12.2 million inhabitants lack access to electricity. Onlyabout 5 percent of all households have electricity. About 35percent of urban households have electricity, but in ruralareas this figure is less than 1 percent. Data are lackingon the number of rural clinics and schools withrefrigeration and electricity or the number of villages withaccess to (electric) pumping facilities. The distribution ofelectricity in Cameroon is limited, and the growth of newsubscribers is slow. New connections are only made in highload areas such as towns and industrial establishments,where grid extension is a cost-effective solution. But evenin the peri-urban areas, thousands of consumers are notconnected and use lead-acid batteries to run theirtelevisions and lights. To extend the grid to rural areaswould require a significant increase in investment just tokeep up with population growth. Given the problems that theurban-based grid systems already experience, it is unlikelythat most of the rural population and institutions, undercurrent policies, will get electricity in the next 20-40 years.
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