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The strike initiated by the Union of Truck Drivers in Cameroon (SCPC) operating the Douala-Bangui corridor in a bid to denounce the harassment from armed gangs from the Central African Republic is stillgoing on These drivers said they are usually the targets of murder, beatings and harassment from the armed militias.

More than two years after the outbreak of the crisis in the CAR, the Office of Management of Land Freight (BGFT) confirmed the deaths of eleven truck drivers while two are reported missing. This situation is unacceptable, the truckers drivers decried, stressing that “all those deaths are caused by the CAR-based armed groups.

More than 90 percent of goods to the CAR pass through Cameroon from the Port of Douala (PAD). A landlocked country, CAR depends heavily on Cameroon’s port of Douala which serves as a transit point for the crisis-torn country’s exports and imports.

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Jul.2015

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In order to get out of the energy deficit, which contributes to the country losing a half-point of economic growth each year, Cameroon will invest 37 trillion FCFA in the electricity sector over the next ten years, revealed Joël Nana Kontchou (photo) on 26^th June 2015 in Douala. The Managing Director of Eneo, Cameroon’s public electricity company, was invited to present the challenges accessing electricity in the country at the opening of the GICAM universities.

According to the Eneo Managing Director, out of the total, 25 trillion FCFA will be invested in the construction of production infrastructure, “to have 3,000 MW of power by 2025,” compared to the current 1200 MW. The transportation needs approximately 700 billion FCFA in investment. “These sums will be added to Eneo’s 477 billion,” as forecast in the ten-year investment plan of the British investment fund, Actis, highlighted Joël Nana Kontchou.

He went on to say that, by 2025, Cameroon will be able to “aim for a 75% coverage rate (against barely 50% currently in the urban zones and a lot less in the rural zones) with an over 85% reduction in power outages,” and thus go “from loathed deballasting to the status of electricity exporter to Central Africa. Eneo is resolutely committed to playing its part. Other actors must assume their share of the responsibility.”

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Jul.2015

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The former Cameroonian football legend, Roger Milla who is currently an soccer ambassador has laid the foundation stone of a plant specialized in plastic recycling with a potential to create 2,500 jobs, APA learns here. With the collaboration of some community-based businessmen (GIC) and the sponsorship of the Coeur d’Afrique (Africa’s Heart) Foundation, the plant, located in Yaounde, will recover plastics which it will process by mixing it with sand to make cobblestones and slabs. The unit is committed to training of 30 youths who will in turn transmit their knowledge to others in 50 communes across Cameroon

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Jul.2015

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The Ministry of Public Contracts has announced bids for complementary environmental and social impact assessment on the Menchum Hydropower Project in the North West Region.

The restricted international invitation to tender has been launched to complete the first ever carried out in 2013.

Accordingly authorities are inviting competent firms capable of carrying out additional studies on the project which is expected to take six weeks. 

Officials in the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy say the 26 June 2015 publication of the invitation to tender is a concrete indicator that the project will soon begin.

The construction of the 72 megawatt hydroelectric dam over the Menchum River is part of a solution to the frequent power outages in the country.

The Menchum Hydroelectric Power scheme is estimated at 325 million USD (about FCFA 191,853,779,504) with a construction period of 40 months and a defects liability period of 12 months.

 Source:CRTV

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Ngwa Bertrand

02.Jul.2015

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Equipment for the functioning of a port are already available in Kribi ahead of effective takeoff.

 

The Kribi Deep Seaport in Mboro, some 35 km from the headquarters of the Ocean Division of the South Region, is technically fit for use. The constructor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is done with all works on the edifice and the imposing infrastructure is now ready to receive vessels of all sizes. All that is needed to make the port functional are in Kribi.

Modern Cranes

The Kribi Deep Seaport consists of two terminals: A 265 m long multipurpose terminal with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes and a 350 m long container terminal with a capacity of 350,000 EVP. All the equipment that can allow ships to anchor in the two terminals are already available. There are two container cranes to handle containerized goods. There are also portal cranes to handle non-containerized goods. According to Peter Munongo Aboko, Civil Engineer at the Coordination Unit of the Port’s Steering Committee, one of the portal cranes can handle both containerized and non-containerized goods. There are spreaders to handle containers and make the port more efficient. “It means that we can have the three of them work at the same time on the same ship. According to the design of the port, the multipurpose terminal is to harbour vessels with lengths of 200 m while the container terminal is designed to handle vessels of 293 m long. Two of such ships can anchor at the same time and there is a security gap between,” he said. Experts say the port can now receive simultaneously three ships of 200 m each.

Two Tug Boats, Other Security Gadgets

There are two tug boats with 2,400 horse power for each. The two tug boats christened “Roi Mayesse” and “Roi Madola” from Shantou, China are there either to pull or push the vessels given that large vessels will be anchoring in Kribi. This is to avoid accidents. In the same vein, the constructor has put in place a protection dyke to avoid water currents that can disturb ships from anchoring or taking off. The protection dyke therefore calms the waters.

The edifice is built in such a way that once it goes operational, only people with authorized badges can get access into the port. In the north entrance of the port, there is security gate for the exit of containers as modern weighing centres have been built to check vehicles. Surveillance offices are already equipped with computers and ready for use and surveillance cameras are also spread across the port.  Trainings are ongoing in the port’s site to sharpen the skills of those who are going to work in the port. According to the deputy Coordinator of the Operational Unit of the Port’s Steering Committee, Hand Bahiol Magloire, “This is part of transfer that the operational unit will hand over to the ports authority once it is created. It will not make sense if we get all this latest technology in the port and allow in the hands of people who do not master it,” he said.  The Kribi Deep seaport also has inbuilt cameras for surveillance and security round the clock. There is permanent patrol of forces of law and order.

Comparative Advantage

Kribi is a deep seaport and Douala is a river port. As a river port, Douala needs dredging all the time which, experts say, is very costly. At the same time because of the shallow depth of 7 m, it cannot harbour ships with draft of close to 13 m. Meanwhile, “in Kribi, a ship of 13 m draft can anchor because we have a security distance of 1m and 1.5 m. Kribi has more depth than Douala. Depth around the jerry is 16 m which makes it capable of receiving all types of cargo ships in the world,” Peter Munongo Aboko said. The Channel in Douala is around 6-7 m but in Kribi, it is 15 m, making it the best in the central African sub region. Contrary to what is happening in Douala, Kribi has a maximum stay of containers in the port at 11 days. There is a logistic zone under creation which will host the containers after the 11 days must have expired. There is a warehouse where all the vehicles that will work in the port will be kept. For the autonomy of the port, there are three big generators to ensure continuity in case of load shading.

Source:Cameroon Tribune

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.Jul.2015

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The Cameroonian government has just handed the contract to replace the roofs of the vats at Société nationale de raffinage (Sonara) to the China-based Top International Engineering Corp, for a total of 1.154 billion FCFA.

The project is expected to last six months. The Chinese company was chosen over the France-based Frielander, which was found to have made an “insufficient bid”, as well as the group led by Cimontubo out of Portugal which made an offer that was deemed to be too high.

A subsidiary of Shaanxi Construction Engineering Group Corporation, Top International Engineering Corp is one of the top 500 Chinese companies. The company operates in several Central and West African countries.

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Jun.2015

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