(Business in Cameroon) - Naaz Trading Cameroon, subsidiary of Dubai-based trading company Naaz Trading DMC, recently obtained the environmental compliance certificate for the integrated industrial wood processing complex (Ciblo) of Lomié. This project has been on hold for the past seven years. 

“Naaz Trading complied with the environmental and social impact study regulations (…). This environmental compliance certificate is issued in view of the environmental and social management plan laid out in the aforementioned study,” reads the document signed by Nana Aboubakar Djalloh, Cameroon’s Minister Delegate to the Minister of Environment.

According to Gerard Lomié, mayor of the eponymous town (located in the Eastern region), now that Naaz Trading has this certificate, it can request necessary authorizations and start works in coming weeks.

“Ultimately, the Ciblo will allow local craftsmen and carpenters to get legal and quality dried wood. This will reduce delivery times and reduce the importation of furniture from Asian countries. The Ciblo could also benefit countries like Congo and the Central African Republic as they will be able to send their raw timber for processing since the raw log export ban will officially become effective in 2023 in the Congo Basin,” the town official explained when public hearings were being convened in the framework of the environmental and social impact assessment.   

Overall, Naaz plans to invest XAF50 billion CFA francs in the Lomié complex. Next year, it will invest “XAF2.5 billion for the construction of the primary processing line, a large capacity dryer, and a solid wood panel manufacturing unit. The construction of the first processing line is expected to start in January 2022,” Gerard Lomié informed.

In the meantime, Lomié already has a 59-hectare area for the construction of Ciblo, we learn. 

S.A.