Cameroon: 21 Projects Await Public/Private Financing in 2013

Godlove BAINKONG , Cameroon Tribune du 14 Janvier 2013

Investors can choose from transport, urban development, energy, agro-food industry…

Private national and international investors have been served an opportunity to partner with the government of Cameroon in executing some 21 projects in a wide-range of sectors and benefit from the win-win fallouts that the public/private partnership contracts platform offers.

According to a release issued by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, the projects span through sectors like transport, urban development, energy and the agro-food industry.

Investors by the release, have for instance, in the transport sector projects like the second phase of the Kribi Deep Seaport project wherein they can build specialised terminals, a 70-km railway line between Douala and Limbe, another; 100-km line between Edea and Kribi, two tramways (congested freeways) in Yaounde and Douala as well as a 120-km double-carriage road between Edea and Kribi. There is also the construction of student hostels in the universities of Yaounde 2, Dschang, Bamenda and Maroua with a capacity of 2,500 beds each as well as 5,000 social housing units each in Yaounde and Douala.

Should investors not be interested in the above sectors, then energy with the construction of wind energy in Mount Bamboutos as well as hydroelectric plants in Bini à Warak, Njock on the Nyong River and in Menchum, offers another opportunity. The agro-food sector is also yearning for investment with projects like the construction of warehouses for foodstuffs in Yaounde, Foumbot, Mbouda and Mvangan.

The selection of these projects goes in line with government’s diversification process of the modes of funding and execution of giant development projects. Within the public/private partnership contracts platform, the projects identified will be executed under the Build-Operate-Transfer mechanism so that the win-win aspect could be ascertained.

To ensure efficiency in execution and attainment of set objectives within this framework, government has been putting in place legal and regulatory mechanisms notably the Support Council for the Realisation of Partnership Contracts (CARPA) instituted in 2006 by government and placed under the Prime Minister’s office. It has the mandate to rehabilitate public infrastructure and improve the quality of service to the population through the public/private partnership contracts. A format for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect, the Minister’s release further states, has been drawn up and is awaiting investors.