(Business in Cameroon) - The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) closed, on June 29, the call for expressions of international interest aimed at selecting a bidder that will carry out studies for the completion of the Koutéré single checkpoint, a border village between Cameroon and Chad.
The Commission explains that the final bidder will build an infrastructure that will improve transit and border crossing conditions. This infrastructure is expected to reduce transport time, transport cost, customs clearance time, and physical and non-physical barriers along the Douala-Ndjamena corridor.
The construction of the single post at Koutéré was launched in 2009. The works were halted in 2011 at about 20% physical progress following the foreclosure of the European Development Fund’s financing. To finalize the construction, the CEMAC Commission then conducted two studies of the remaining works. The most recent was in May 2015.
The last study, which was set at about CFAF 1.6 billion, was carried out at the request of the African Development Bank (AfDB) which proposed to allocate the funds previously earmarked for the construction of a checkpoint at the Cameroon-Chad border in Kousseri. This last attempt was not much more successful than the previous one following the closure at the end of 2016 of the African Development Fund (ADF) grant dedicated to the programme.
For the resumption of the works, the CEMAC Commission is now proposing, to update, with funding from the French Global Budget Support, the study on the construction of the said checkpoint which should reduce the numerous rackets and other harassments users and economic operators complain about on the Douala-Ndjamena corridor.
Sylvain Andzongo