Portraits Building the future

LOUIS PAUL MOTAZE, THE PRIME MINISTER’S SECRETARY-GENERAL

The major projects’ coordinator

Louis Paul Motaze, Minister of the Economy from 2007 to 2011, was propelled into the Prime Minister’s SecretaryGeneral’s seat when the cabinet was reshuffled on 9 December. His main task: coordinate the government’s action in order to speed up work on the major infrastructure projects announced. Mr. Motaze already oversaw most of them as Economy Minister. Today he is the chairman of the steering committees for the construction of the deepwater port in Kribi and the Lom Pangar hydroelectric project in the East, as well as of Hydro Mekin, the company building Mekin Dam in the South.

ROGER BOGNE, CEO OF CAM IRON

Roger Bogne has a knack for tackling uncharted territory. After living a while in South Africa, where he got a first-hand look at the mining industry’s vibrancy, he decided to experiment in Cameroon. Today he can take pride in having launched one of the country’s biggest industrial-mining projects. He set up the Camsa Mining operation in 2003 and has been involved in a partnership with the government to promote non-industrial, small-scale mining. The 2004 pilot experiment’s success led the international financial community to allocate funds freed up by debt reduction. Buoyed by this success, Mr. Bogne decided to shift into higher gear and launched Caminco, which is involved in gold-mining activities in eastern Cameroon. In March 2005 his pursuit of new mining opportunities led him to found Cam Iron, which operates a joint-venture with Australia’s Sundance Resources Ltd to extract iron in Mbalam in southern Cameroon.

SAMUEL NGUIFFO, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (CED)

A voice for the neighbours of progress

Samuel Nguiffo, a legal expert who is passionate about nature, campaigns against chaotic deforestation and for the preservation of people’s rights. He heads the Centre for the Environment and Development, which has widened its scope of activities since being set up in 1994, first at the Chad-Cameroon pipeline construction site, where its help for local populations was decisive, and now with the simultaneous launches of big projects. He advocates for the rights of neighbouring peoples with decision-makers and identifies the programmes’ impact on their way of life.

THÉODORE Nsangou, CEO OF EDC

An expert in strategic investments

Soon after the reform of the power industry, which involved privatising the national utility, Sonel, renamed AES Sonel, the government realised that a single private company was not enough to catch up with financing delays. So, the Electricity Development Corporation (EDC) was created. Théodore Nsangou, who spent 20 years with the late public utility, was tapped to head the new company, which coordinates the State’s strategic investments. With a civil engineering degree and a postgraduate degree in mechanical engineering, both from Paris, as well as a Ph.D. from the University of Compiègne, his credentials are unquestionable. The president’s appointment of Mr. Nsangou as head of the EDC seemed almost natural: much of his career has focused on hydroelectric programmes at most of the country’s biggest dams, including Song Loulou, La Mape, Lom Pangar, Nachtigal, Memve’ele and Colomines. He has the perfect profile of a strategic structural programme expert.

MARTHE-ANGELINE MINJA, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE INVESTMENT PROMOTION AGENCY (API)

Vital to Cameroon’s emergence

Major development projects are bound to draw a growing number of foreign companies to Cameroon. Marthe Angeline Minja is here to welcome, guide and reassure them. After serving as head of the Investment Code Management Unit and secretary-general of the Ministry of Tourism for nearly a decade, she has been the managing director of the Investment Promotion Agency (API) for two years. Her main mission is to promote Cameroon’s brand image abroad and help improve an environment favourable to attracting capital to the country. Ms. Minja, who graduated from the Neuilly-sur-Seine Business School and holds a master’s in management from the University of Paris-I, proposes measures likely to draw entrepreneurs and gathers information on various investment possibilities in order to make them known. She has also created a project databank for investors. Lastly, she welcomes, assists and orientates foreign and national partners setting up projects every step of the way. Ms. Minja is vital to Cameroon’s emergence.

JEAN-DAVID BILÉ, CEO OF AES SONEL

The energy expert

In addition to holding an engineering degree from the École Centrale and a Ph.D. in economics, JeanDavid Bilé has completed various training programmes involving the management of major projects as well as energy planning and policy. Mr. Bilé needed those multidisciplinary skills in 2004 when he became CEO of AES Sonel after spending a year as second-in-charge of the privatised power company the American group AES bought in 2001. At the time of privatisation he was one of the longest-serving managers, having worked in various investment planning departments. The American directors’ graft failed to take so, in a context of serious power shortages, he was assigned to quickly boost power supply and the company’s image. He succeeded, especially in the image department. Supply still lags behind domestic demand, but he has been responsible for increasing the number of thermal plants (Limbé, Yassa-Dibamba and Logbaba) and building the country’s first gas-fired plant, initiatives that make power rationing a fading memory. In 2009 AES tapped him to head a regional branch, the African Power Company (Apco), which will invest $1.5 billion to develop energy supply in central Africa.

By François BAMBOU