Yaoundé, 23 October 2026 - Cameroon is beginning to compile its first energy accounts, a statistical tool designed to guide investment and energy policy.
From 26 to 30 October 2026, the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) will hold a national workshop on methodology and preliminary compilation in Soa, near Yaoundé. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will provide technical support through its Subregional Office for Central Africa and African Centre for Statistics. Participants will establish common compilation rules and begin applying them to available data.
The workshop builds on an initial needs assessment held in Douala from 22 to 26 June 2026. That meeting identified potential users, mapped data sources and assessed the institutional and technical challenges involved in producing the accounts regularly. In Soa, experts will turn those findings into compilation methods and consistent tables that the relevant institutions can use.
Central to work is the physical supply and use table for energy, which records where energy comes from and how it is used. It tracks production, imports, transformation and consumption, as well as losses, providing a coherent picture of energy flows.
The work will follow the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Energy (SEEA-Energy). Expected outputs include a national methodological reference framework, a preliminary supply and use table populated with available data, and specifications for the tools needed to compile the accounts.
Organized under the World Bank-funded HISWACA project, the workshop supports implementation of Cameroon’s national plan for developing environmental-economic accounting, drawn up in 2023. It will bring together 27 participants from government agencies, energy-sector organizations and institutions that use the data, including two ECA experts. Work will cover petroleum products, electricity, natural gas, biomass and traditional fuels, as well as renewable energy. A cross-cutting group will address consistency with national accounts, calculation and conversion methods, and the treatment of missing data.
The broader aim is to give Cameroon regularly updated information on the links between energy, the economy and the environment, supporting an energy transition consistent with Vision 2035 and the National Development Strategy 2020–2030 (NDS30).
By continuing to support NIS and other relevant agencies, ECA is helping build the statistical foundation to target investment more effectively, monitor losses and evaluate energy policies. The accounts should inform decisions that improve supply reliability for households and businesses, raise living standards and strengthen industrial competitiveness.
Queries
Zacharie Roger MBARGA - Communications Officer
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Tel: +237 222 50 43 48
Email: zacharie.mbargayene@un.org
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org
