Solar Minigrids Bring Power to Cameroon’s Remote Villages Thanks to IEEE Partnership

Yaoundé, Cameroon — A pioneering solar minigrid initiative, backed by IEEE Smart Village, is lighting up rural communities in Cameroon that have been without electricity for decades. The project, led by local entrepreneur Jude Numfor, has already connected hundreds of households and businesses in the mountainous northwest region.

“When I was a child, we had only the moon and stars at night,” said Numfor, CEO of Renewable Energy Innovators Cameroon (REI Cameroon). “Now, thanks to the support of IEEE Smart Village, we are changing that reality for entire communities.”

Numfor’s company designs, installs, and maintains solar minigrids that use photovoltaic panels and battery storage to deliver 50-hertz electricity through smart meters. A key innovation is an open source metering system developed in collaboration with IEEE Smart Village, which allows transparent tracking of energy use.

IEEE Smart Village provided a grant in 2017 to expand REI Cameroon’s operations and refine its business model. The program, funded by IEEE societies and donations to the IEEE Foundation, supports projects that bring electricity, education, and employment to remote areas worldwide.

Background

Numfor grew up in the village of Mbem in northwest Cameroon, where electricity was nonexistent. At age 13, he moved in with a missionary family in Allat who used solar panels to power their home. “I could watch TV, eat ice cream, and turn on lights,” he recalled. “It made me wish my brothers back in Mbem had the same opportunity.”

His curiosity about electricity was sparked when a motion-sensor solar light stopped working. “My missionary family told me to play with it like a toy,” Numfor said. “I replaced the dead battery with a motorcycle battery and brought the power back for the night.” Encouraged by his missionary parents, he studied technology and engineering independently because Cameroon’s universities lacked solar energy programs at the time.

In 2006, he cofounded Wireless Light and Power, later renamed Renewable Energy Innovators Cameroon, to bring solar electricity to rural communities.

What This Means

The partnership with IEEE Smart Village has been pivotal, according to Numfor. “It’s not just about money. We share ideas, we get advice, and we have made friends,” he said. “Entrepreneurship is lonely, but with the Smart Village community, it is different.”

The open source metering system is a breakthrough: it allows users, researchers, and utilities to view and customize data collection, ensuring transparent billing and grid management. This contrasts with proprietary utility meters that often lack transparency.

For communities like Mbem, the impact is transformative. Children no longer rely on hazardous kerosene lamps for studying, and small businesses can operate after sunset. Numfor envisions expanding the minigrid network across Cameroon and beyond, replicating the model with support from IEEE Smart Village.

“We are proving that renewable energy can reach the last mile,” Numfor said. “This is just the beginning.”