(Business in Cameroon) - The tugboat christened “Val Paraiso” will dock on July 8, 2014 on the Atlantic coast in Mboro, a district located in the town of Kribi (South region of Cameroon) where the deep water port under construction will be located. The steering committee of this immense project is holding a symbolic ceremony to meet the project’s first phase timeline which involves the construction of a dike, an access canal for ships, a docking key and two polyvalent container terminals. 

Internal sources with the steering committee reveal that construction is 65% complete. Calls for tenders to recruit concessionaries for the two abovementioned terminals were made a few months ago. Without counting the acquisition and receipt of two tugboats in China, Roi Madola and Roi Mayesse, the port is to become one of the largest on the West African coast.

Built by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), using financing granted by Eximbank of China to Cameroon, the Kribi deep water port will be equipped with an ore carrier, a hydrocarbon terminal, an iron gang plank and more. These other infrastructures will be built during the second phase of the project following the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) model. Private partners have already been identified for this purpose.