2024-02-10 18:24:57
The Sonara has a new boss. During the company’s extraordinary board of directors meeting held this Friday, February 10, Bako Harouna was officially appointed general manager of the Cameroonian refinery, taking over from Claude Simo Njonou. Portrait of the magistrate now in charge.
It is now established: Only shortly after the shock dismissal of Claude Simo Njonou five years after his appointment, the National Refining Company (SONARA) has a new strong man at its head. During the extraordinary board of directors organized this Friday in Limbé under the leadership of the Minister of Water and Energy Gaston Eloundou Essomba, magistrate Bako Harouna was officially inducted as general manager of the company, one of the most strategic from Cameroon.
An atypical profile
A design engineer in industrial chemistry by training, Bako Harouna gradually swapped the scientist’s coat for the lawyer’s robe, becoming one of the most prominent magistrates in the country. An atypical career path which led him to the head of renowned administrative structures, the prestigious position of Prosecutor General near the Western Court of Appeal.
Since 2019, the new boss of SONARA has held the position of general director of Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO). A technocrat profile who will now take control of the venerable Limbé refinery.
The challenge of restarting
A heavy task awaits Bako Harouna to get SONARA back on its feet, still recovering after the terrible fire of 2019 which ravaged a good part of its installations. If the reconstruction has progressed well, the new strongman will only have a respite when production – which has been stopped for almost 3 years – can restart.
Until then, his qualities of “ manager » praised many times during his appointment, will make it possible to meet this immense challenge: bringing SONARA back among the leading refineries in Africa, and putting Cameroon back on the road to total energy independence. The bets are open…