(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian government has just awarded to the Egyptian civil engineering company, Arab Contractors, a contract worth FCfa 28.5 billion, for the construction of a stretch of the Sangmélima-Ouesso cross-border road which is meant to link Cameroon to the Republic of Congo.

This contract, which should be carried out over a 20-months period, we learn, is also about the construction of 32 kilometres of road between Bikoula and Djoum, to complete the 65 km of road between Sangmélima and Djoum, for which only 25% of the construction works was achieved (3 years after their launch), according to a estimate made last year.

The contract for this first stretch had been awarded to the Iranian company Kayson Company, whose bid for the construction of the Bikoula-Djoum road has just been rejected by the Cameroonian government, officially due to “insufficient references on performances in similar project”.

Officially presented as “the missing link between the capitals Yaoundé and Brazzaville”, the Sangmélima (Cameroon)-Ouesso (Congo) cross-border road construction project will consist in paving 651 km, including 316 km on the Cameroonian side and 335 on the Congolese side (including the first 169 km commissioned on 11 February 2016).

This project is funded by several donors, including BADEA, IBD, AfDB, the Saudi Development Fund, the Kuwaiti Fund and the two states involved in the project.

BRM