Cameroon Launches Twin Tenders for Chad Power Interconnector

Cameroon’s National Electricity Transmission Company, Sonatrel, launched two international tenders on Aug. 17, 2026. The contracts cover 225-kV high-voltage transmission lines and substations between Wouro-Soua in the Adamaoua region and Cameroon’s border with Chad in the Far North region.

The cost of the works was not disclosed. The contracts fall under Component 2 of the Cameroon-Chad Power Interconnection Project, known as Pirect, which is managed on the Cameroonian side by Sonatrel. The project aims to enable Cameroon to become an electricity exporter by supplying 100 MW to Chad from the 420-MW Nachtigal dam, built in the country’s Centre region.

The first tender is divided into two lots covering the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a total of 419.6 km of 225-kV high-voltage transmission lines. That leaves 146.4 km of the 566 km planned under Component 2 outside the current tender. The project coordination unit said the remaining section would be tendered in a later phase because budget constraints mean only part of the planned network can be contracted at this stage.

34 months to complete the works

The second tender launched by Sonatrel covers the extension and construction, also in two lots, of substations at Wouro-Soua in the Adamaoua region; Garoua 2 in the North region; and Maroua and Kousseri in the Far North region. Bids are due Nov. 18, 2026, for the substation tender and Nov. 19 for the transmission-line tender.

According to Sonatrel documents, each lot must be completed within 34 months of contract award. That schedule rules out completion of Pirect in 2027, as announced in Yaounde on Nov. 21, 2023, during the project’s official launch ceremony.

While contractors are being selected and work on Component 2 has yet to begin, work on Component 1 is continuing. Launched in March 2025, the first component involves interconnecting the Southern Interconnected Grid, or RIS, which covers six of Cameroon’s 10 regions, with the Northern Interconnected Grid, or RIN, which covers the country’s three northern regions.

According to the Pirect coordination unit, Component 1 includes “building 524 km of double-circuit 225-kV overhead transmission line between Ntui in the Centre region and Wouro Soua in the Adamaoua region; building four substations in Ntui, Yoko in the Centre region, Tibati in the Adamaoua region and Wouro Soua; and supplying electricity to 110 villages in the Centre and Adamaoua regions as part of strengthened social measures.”

557.5 billion CFA francs to underpin a common electricity market

Described by the World Bank as a “strategic project, both for Cameroon and Chad,” Pirect will cost a total of 557.5 billion CFA francs. Financing includes $385 million, or about 231.7 billion CFA francs, from the World Bank; 258 million euros, or 169.2 billion CFA francs, from the African Development Bank; 123 million euros, or 80.7 billion CFA francs, from the Islamic Development Bank; 30 million euros, or 19.7 billion CFA francs, from the European Union; and contributions from Cameroon and Chad, including $93.5 million, or 56.2 billion CFA francs, from Cameroon.

Cameroon’s minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, has described the project as a “decisive turning point for energy integration in Central Africa” because it could enable Cameroon and Chad to establish a common electricity market within the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC. The bloc comprises Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Chad, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea. The development of such a market is also an objective promoted by the Central African Power Pool.

Speaking at the project’s official launch in Yaounde in November 2023, Sonatrel Director General Victor Mbemi Nyankga said the Cameroon-Chad initiative could inspire other CEMAC countries and even Nigeria. Those countries could, in turn, join the regional electricity market Cameroon and Chad are seeking to establish by connecting to Pirect’s interconnection points.

Brice R. Mbodiam