Assessing the determinants of rural energy transition in Cameroon

Abstract

The demand of energy in rural Cameroon has been mainly met by traditional energy sources despite the availability of health and environmentally friendly clean energy options internationally. This study empirically analyses the determinants of the rural energy transition in Cameroon. The data used in this study come from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), namely ECAM (Enquête Camerounaise auprès des ménages) 3 and 4, and we therefore first resorted to the Markov Transition Matrix in order to estimate the probabilities of transition between the different states of energy well-being, and secondly to an ordered logistic regression in order to highlight the determinants of these different transitions. The results show us firstly that there is a strong transition between the states of energy well-being (the rate of sedentarization for the period 2007-2014 is 32.97%). The positive transition rate is 55.43%, while the negative transition rate is 11.6%. We can therefore conclude that there were more positive transitions than negative transitions. Secondly, it shows that the energy transition of rural households in Cameroon is linked to the characteristics of the household, the quality of service, the status of housing, the initial situation of the household, and finally the level of household income. Based on these results, we recommended Cameroonian Government to bring electricity production and distribution points closer to rural populations through a decentralized approach, and to ensure the good quality of energy services offered by the national operator.