(Business in Cameroon) - The logging companies operating in Cameroon maintained 7,663 km of unpaved roads during 2015, we learned at the end of a session of the National Road Council (Conaroute) chaired on 31st May 2016 in Yaoundé by the Prime Minister, Philémon Yang. This contribution from the logging companies to preserving roads in Cameroon however represents less than 10% of the national network of dirt roads, officially approximately 100,000 km long.

At the same time, we learned during this same meeting, the public administration maintained only 1,000 km of surfaced roads, "due to various technical and procedural constraints", as specified in the communiqué issued by Conaroute.

As a reminder, less than 10% of the Cameroonian road network is maintained. According to officials, this is due to the lack of financial resources and the high cost per kilometre, which is among the most expensive in Africa, according to experts. In order to reverse this trend, a government decision taken on 9 April 2016 by the Prime Minister, established the use of five new products in the nomenclature of surfaced and dirt roads maintenance (only where Carboncor is concerned) in Cameroon, to, we learn, decrease the global expenditure of this activity, and make up for the insufficiency of laterite quarries in the country.

BRM