People want change: Min tells new AES-SONEL GM

The Minister of Water and Energy, Basile Atangana Kouna, has told new AES-SONEL General Manager, Joel Nana Kontchou, that the Cameroonian population wants change and reliable services from the company.

The Minister was speaking on August 19, while inducting the new SONEL GM and his Deputy, Prof Hamandjoda Oumarou, at the Commercial Directorate of AES SONEL at Koumassi, Douala.

Referring to the coming of a new strategic partner (a British company), ACTIS Group, and the new management team, Kouna said the country’s population wants to see a significant change in the supply of electric energy as well as improvement in the quality of services to customers.

He told the new management team of AES-SONEL that some of the major complaints raised by the population against the company include irregular power supply, slowness in the carrying out maintenance work and irregularity in the distribution of bills.

Kouna challenged the management and the over 4,000 SONEL workers to imagine themselves in the position of customers, to better appreciate their complaints and feelings.

The Minister called on the new management team to set as one of its top priorities, the rehabilitation of the Songloulou Hydro plant, which is the biggest currently owned by the company. He named it as another of the many priorities that needed the reinforcement of both the energy transportation and distribution networks of the company.

Kouna, however, said though there is much expectation by the population; no one doubts the challenges that await the new management team. He, nevertheless, expressed optimism that the new GM who has worked for many years in Africa, Europe and the United States, will blend his high intelligence and rich experience to surmount the difficulties.

He added that Government also salutes the fact that the new strategic partner, ACTIS, has appointed a Cameroonian expert at the helm.

Kouna called on Kontchou to strive to ensure social peace in the company and strive to give priority to dialogue with workers and sub-contractors of the company, other partners, consumers associations, as well as administrative and municipal authorities.

The Minister equally called on all the workers, subcontractors and other partners of AES-SONEL to give the new GM their full support in his difficult mission.

To the outgoing GM, Jean David Bilé, Minister Kouna showered praises on him for his service to the nation during his 37 years in SONEL, which, since 2001, has grown into what is now known to be AES SONEL. Minister Kouna said he was happy that Bilé was actually not going away, for he has been appointed by the ACTIS Group as the Board Chairman of newly created ACTIS Holding Cameroon.

A New Era At SONEL According to the ACTIS Group, the installation of the GM and his Deputy marks the beginning of a new era in the company.

The ACTIS Group says its vision is to transform AES-SONEL into a solid Cameroonian enterprise that can be reckoned with at the international scene as a reputed African company in the transportation and distribution of quality electric energy. The ACTIS Group says it plans to carry out heavy investments to develop infrastructure and modernise the equipment of AES-SONEL.

The priorities of ACTIS Group will, among other things, be; to significantly ameliorate the transportation and distribution networks of AES SONEL, as well as ameliorate the quality of billing and services to customers.

The ACTIS Group is reported to have given the new management team the mission to put in place the Business Plan that the Group presented to the Cameroon Government. The new management team has also been charged to put in place the reputed management style of the ACTIS Group.

Kontchou has, on his part, vowed to prioritise the customer above other things. “AES-SONEL is a service company, and we will make as priority No. 1, the customer.

Management and the entire personnel will have to put the customer at the centre of our action. We have to work hard to make significant improvement in the services we offer our customers. The satisfaction of the customer must be the paramount concern of each and every one of us. Our daily mission must be to make available to customers, regular and quality energy”, Kontchou declared in his first correspondence to the personnel of AES-SONEL after taking over service.

First Cameroonian Trained GM Meanwhile, the appointment of the 52-year-old Konthcou, was hailed by different speakers at the August 19 installation ceremony as the first Cameroonian trained engineer to become GM of the company in its over 40 years of existence. Kontchou graduated from the National Polytechnic in Yaounde in 1984, where he studied both mechanical and electrical engineering.

Though an engineer, Kontchou went on to do commercial education in a number of institutions in Europe and the United States. He studied Strategic Finance at ‘Ecole de Commerce’ at Lausanne in Switzerland, and Marketing Management in the University of Colombia, New York, United States. He, thus, had the type of education that prepared him both for field work as a technician, and for management.

Kontchou worked for over 25 years in a multinational company in the oil sector, Schlumberger, where he held different posts of responsibilities as well as worked in a number of countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, as well as in the United States of America.

Before his appointment as GM, Kontchou had, since 2010, been the General Manager of Schlumberger for West and Central Africa, with residence in the United States.

Reappointment of Deputy GM The new Deputy General Manager of AES SONEL, 50-year-old Prof Hamandjoda Oumarou, who obtained a PhD in 1996 in Russia in the study of Hydropower Plants and Hydroelectric Devices, is neither new at AES SONEL nor in the post of Deputy GM. Prof Hamandjoda Oumarou, who formerly served at the University of Ngaoundere and the Presidency of the Republic, was appointed Deputy GM of AES-SONEL in 2009 by the then strategic partner of the company, AES Corporation.

The new strategic partner, ACTIS Group, has thus reappointed him to the post. ACTIS Group has also appointed a new Director of Finance at AES-SONEL, Wilfred Ntuba.

The Post has learnt that though AES Corporation (an American Company) has sold the shares (majority shares) it was holding in SONEL to the ACTIS Group and left the company, the name of the company will remain AES-SONEL until when ACTIS and the State of Cameroon will come up with a new name.