Célestine Ketcha Courtès, Cameroon’s minister of urban development, presided the relaunch of the road works that fall within the framework of the 3-year urgency plan Planut. During the ceremony on June 26, 2019, in Yaoundé, the official indicated that president Paul Biya has renewed the Planut’s funding agreement with “financial partner” Ecobank for an investment of XAF25 billion extensible to XAF60 billion.

Célestine Ketcha Courtès invited business leaders to send the project execution plans within 48 hours, and site journals at the end of every month. Engineering firms were tasked to find workers.

The Planut is funded by five banks namely, BGFI, Standard Chartered Bank, Banque Atlantique, Ecobank and Deutsche Bank.

In the 2018 budget execution report, Cameroon’s ministry of finance criticized the unclear spending for the Planut projects. The lack of clarification has a negative impact on the budget because “all these projects are paid via cash advances that generate an important volume of debts that require large budgetary coverage,” the ministry wrote.

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Eneo Cameroon, subsidiary of British Actis, unveils more on its program of deploying prepaid and postpaid smart meters in Cameroon. On the sidelines of the International Labor Day, MD Joël Nana Kontchou said the program is already underway.

“Despite logistics issues observed early this year, the execution pace significantly accelerated in recent weeks. This gives hope for achieving the year-end target which is to install 20,000 prepaid meters and 40,000 postpaid smart meters,” the MD said.

The number of smart meters is expected to increase 40-fold this year compared to 2017 when the company deployed 500 such meters in Douala and Yaoundé. The smart meters being installed are linked to the Metering Management System (MMS), a remote meter index acquisition system acquired in 2009 that makes it possible to read the meters remotely.

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Cameroonian finance minister Louis Paul Motazé (photo) granted an audience April 29 to Hervinder Singh, who leads international projects within Indian steel giant Jindal Steel Power, in the presence of Guillaume Negou Tela, MD of Camina SA, Jindal’s subsidiary, and tax authorities.

Talks mainly focused on the evolution of the project as well as suggestions to tackle technical issues encountered with the finance administration, to ensure effective progress in works. They evoked tax incentives that will help facilitate carrying out the project; a project whose potential is yet to be officially estimated.

As a reminder, Jintal has been operating the Ngovayang iron ore deposit for 5 years after it acquired the interests of Australian Legend Mining in the project for $17 million. The project covers three licenses of about 2970 Km². But, Jintal first wanted to acquire the Nkout iron ore project from British Affero Mining thanks to an exclusive agreement inked in 2012. But Affero finally sold the license to IMIC, owned by Ousmane Kane who is a member of Affero’s Board and former governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania.

Cameroon sees in Ngovayang an opportunity to develop another world class iron ore project after Mbalam (3 billion tons spread across Cameroon and Congo), Nkout (2 billion tons) and mamelles de Kribi (661 million tons).

Brice R. Mbodiam

A little more is unveiled on the specifications required for the construction of the first 14 electronic toll booths in Cameroon.

According to the department of public works, new booths include a ring road zone (approach area) which comprises a rigidly structured pavement of two lanes each (2 X 3.50 m in width), two shoulders of 2.00 m wide each.

A booth platform will cover two rigid pavements of two lanes each, three islets of 2.00m wide each including the entire civil engineering works, toll booths and equipment, two sidewalks of 1.50 m wide each, platform and islet sanitation, signaling and operating equipment.

As regard toll booth buildings, they will consist of a ground floor, a floor, a parking lot and a specific secure access road, a generator set and its shelter, all networks and equipment, sanitation and fences. The parking areas, on the other hand, have commercial spaces upstream and downstream of the toll booths.

The 14 toll stations to be built and the road routes are as follows : Nsimalen (Yaoundé-Mbalmayo), Mbankomo (Yaoundé-Mbankomo) ; Tiko (Douala-Mutenguene) ; Edea (Douala-Edea) ; Boumnyebel (Edea-Boumnyebel) ; Nkometou (Yaoundé-Obala) ; Bayangam (Bangangte-Bafoussam) ; Bafia (Obala-Bafia) ; Mbanga (Douala-Mbanga) ; Manjo (Mbanga-Manjo) ; Bandja (Bafang-Bafoussam) ; Matazen (Bafoussam-Bamenda) ; Foumbot (Bafoussam-Foumbot) and Dschang (Dschang-Bamougoum).

As part of the project, the Minister of Land Registry and Land Affairs (Mindcaf) was asked to sign additives to the decrees declaring public utility for the nine sites maintained at the existing posts. The project’s scope is defined according to the new design which requires development on a platform of about 300 m long and 120 m wide, taking into account the planned buildings, parking lots and shopping areas.

The other five toll stations were discussed during local consultations for a consensual designation of the new sites in response to the geophysical and agglomeration constraints of housing or small businesses.

Sylvain Andzongo

Ellipse Projects SAS France, the company entrusted with the installation in Cameroon of prefabricated modular steel bridges just took delivery at the port of Douala of 412 cargoes containing metal components of 44 facilities manufactured by Acrow Corporation of America.

Geoffray Terrain who manages the project within Ellipse Projects says 19 bridges are under construction; 14 of which are expected to finish this year while the 5 remaining will finish by March 31, 2020. This is a step forward for this project started five years ago.

The project received XAF25 billion from US Eximbank in Dec 2014 under an XAF46-billion loan agreement signed between Cameroon and French Société Générale.

Until March this year, the scheme was still suffering big challenges regarding cargo clearing at the port of Douala ; issues that prompted a meeting last March 8 in Yaoundé between Olivier Picard, CEO of Ellipse Projects SAS France, and the Cameroonian minister of public works Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, to find a solution to the permanent clearing of focus cargoes.

In detail, 11 bridges will be installed in the east, 9 in the northwest, 7 in the west and 7 others in the south. Adamaoua and the Central region will each benefit from 5 facilities, 4 for the south-west, 3 in the littoral, 2 in the north and 2 in the far north. Bridges’ sizes range between 27 and 150 m. This project is expected to significantly boost transport of goods and people.

S.A

Cameroonian finance minister, Louis Paul Motaze, chaired April 19 in Malabo (E Guinea) the Board Meeting of the Development Bank of Central African States (Bdeac) which fetched his country XAF6.6 billion for development projects.

Part of the monies, XAF4.17 billion, will be used to build a 4-star hotel in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, while the remaining XAF2.5 billion will fund the expansion of Du Vaal school.

The bank also approved XAF80 billion for the construction of a new passenger terminal at the international airport of Bata, in Equatorial Guinea. Another XAF2.5 billion will finance the creation of an agro-pastoral facility while XAF1.100 billion will serve for the construction of a cement unit in the same city.

In Gabon, Bdeac gives XAF45 billion for the construction of 1,000 housing in Okolassi; a project initiated by the national social security fund. The Congolese state received XAF12 billion to strengthen the University Hospital Centre of Brazzaville and another XAF6 billion to partly fund the implementation of a pharmaceutical products’ manufacturing and packaging unit in Ollombo.

S.A

Cameroonian economy minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey signed, on April 17 in Yaoundé, a MoU with the Managing Director of Swiss company Tree Global, Gregory Hess, to set up an industrial system of high-yield nurseries in Cameroon.

The project which aims to increase the supply of quality seeds is an early step for the modernization and revival of agricultural production in Cameroon. It is welcomed by the minister who sees it as an opportunity to level up Cameroonian production. Mr Alamine Ousmane Mey says current certified seed production is insufficient to meet national demand, implying the country is obliged to resort to import. This means widened trade deficit. According to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture, Cameroon's current seed needs are valued at more than XAF200 billion.

Let’s note that Tree Global presented its offer to the Cameroonian government in 2018 and set up the Cameroon Seedling Company to ease project implementation. The company’s mission is to produce 50 million seeds per year through a highly efficient plant nursery system.

S.A

The Cameroonian energy minister, while powering up the Memeve'ele dam on April 16 in Nyabizan, southern region, insisted on the positive effects the facility will have on public finance.

“Our energy mix still draws heavily from thermal power plants that use diesel. These diesel power plants cost us an average of XAF1 billion each week. With the first megawatts of Memeve'ele, the system saved around XAF30 million. We are projecting savings of about XAF350 million per week with the commissioning of Memve'ele.”

Over a month savings will amount to on average more than XAF1.5 billion and XAF18.2 billion after one year. This is far above what the government needs (XAF12.7 billion) to assist 74,994 people in the North-West and South-West in crisis over the period 2018-2019.

With the powering up of the dam, says Gaston Eloundou Essomba, Cameroon's southern interconnected grid now receives around 100 MW. Ebolowa, the capital of the South, and its surroundings receive 7 MW. This network excludes the northern and eastern regions.

Sylvain Andzongo

As part of the sustainability phase of the competitiveness-boosting programs for family-run farms (Acefa), 59 agro-pastoral organizations in Adamaoua region, southern Cameroon, just received XAF194.7 million.

Funded through Debt Reduction-Development Contracts by the French government, Acefa aims to support farmers to increase their productivity and revenues. According to the project operating rules, aid ranges between XAF500,000 and 6 million for beneficiary producer groups, and between XAF5 million and 30 million for professional organizations.

BRM

Malachie Manaouda (photo), Cameroonian health minister, inked April 4 a decision setting terms for accessing & monitoring HIV testing services and population care in public health facilities.

According to the document, the rapid HIV screenings will be free of charge as of January 1^st, 2020. Other free services are also planned for people living with the virus. These are medical and prenatal consultations including booklets, medical records, biological follow-up examinations (CD4 and viral load), early HIV testing for children, antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and drugs to prevent opportunistic infections and others.

The official points out that reagents and medicines for all the above-mentioned examinations and services, in accordance with the national guidelines in force, are provided free of charge to health facilities and laboratories selected under the program. “Failure to comply with this decision or the application of informal costs to the services mentioned above will be subject to sanctions,” warns the department.

Sylvain Andzongo