(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon plans to set up a State company that will manage and expand its railway infrastructure. The project falls under a draft bill that was presented to the Cameroonian parliament on June 13, 2023. 

 "The company manages infrastructure and regulates access for operators active in the railway industry," the draft bill reads.

The bill that is under the deputies’ examination will replace another adopted in 1974. It aims to “modernize the sector, by restructuring the institutional landscape, redefining each stakeholders’ role, and setting up a control, regulation, and sanction system.” The bill also plans for the establishment of a railway regulator. 

According to Government sources, the reform stems from recommendations made after the audit of the Eseka train accident that killed nearly 80 people in October 2016. Through the new regulatory framework, the government wants to address the railway sector’s shortcomings.

According to the draft bill, these shortcomings and issues include "the continuous degradation of infrastructure, the drastic regression in the number of passengers from 1.4 million in 2010 to 600,000 in 2021, the decrease in the volume of goods transported, estimated at 1.6 million in 2021 against 1.9 million in 2010, the closure of the Mbanga-Kumba and Ngoumou-Mbalmayo routes, the investment deficit and the degradation of service quality, and the weakness of state control and sanction instruments in this sector, which is losing competitiveness every day."

BRM