Question 1: What are the main objectives of the Ministry of Publics Works and the main goals that you are trying to reach?
Answer 1: The Ministry of Publics Works is in charge of the development of roads network, the maintenance of the national road heritage and also the supervision of the construction of public buildings. As you know in our countries, roads are very important as a motor of development. So we have to construct roads, we have to build them, we have to maintain them.
Q. 2: We read in some of your interviews that maintaining the road is certainly one of the main aspects of the policy that you are following at the Ministry of Publics Works, could you brief us on this position.
A. 2: It is true that we are in charge of construction and maintenance of roads. But as Cameroon is just coming out of an economic crisis, our network has suffered of the lack of maintenance. Now, we are putting emphasis on maintaining the existing roads and bring them back to the standard
Q. 3: If we are speaking now about the new projects, what is exactly going on in this field, for example how did you manage to begin the construction of the road between Garoua and Centre Africa.
A. 3: We have a number of new projects, some of them are not so new, and others are about to start. Let me start with the important one, which is the CEMAC road network.
The original road network, which we are trying to realize, is a road from Libreville to Bangui and to Chad. The sections of roads through Cameroon have been yet constructed; the African Development Bank from the Gabon frontier to Ambam in the south, and Ambam to Nko-Evong will finance the non-constructed ones. That is about one hundred and thirty eight kilometres. This will start very soon, the contract have been awarded to a consortium.
We have also a project with the common frontier between Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Another road connecting to Ambam is about thirty-eight kilometres, and a bridge over the river Ntem will be also financed by the African Development Bank. Then this project includes thirty kilometres from Mbalmayo to Yaoundé-Nsimalen Airport junction. All of that is about two hundreds and two kilometres of roads.
Then we have the next project, which is financed by the European Development Fund, it concerns Bertoua-Garoua-Aboulai. Two hundred and forty-seven kilometres are in progress and we expect to finish next year in July. Then, the project of the European Development Fund from Ngaoundere to Moundou in Chad is another two hundred and thirty-two kilometres. We expect to launch soon the tender.
Then, on the other side of the country we have some projects that are going on and financed by the African Development Bank.
These projects are our main ones for the time and we hope that when all of them will be completed our bitumen’s news road network will rise to 5500 kilometres in the Country. We have other projects in the pipeline, but there is no need talking about them. It is sufficient to say that with the rediscovered economic progress we are going to be able to increase the road construction in Cameroon.
Concerning the road maintenance: we have gone through a process, which have been piloted by the World Bank. For a long time, the State, through the Ministry of Public Works, had executed works by direct labour. All the maintenance was done by direct labour through units created at the level of the provinces and at the level of the divisions. As regards paved roads, the government has opted to sell the units to the private sector. Under the new system, rural roads maintenance has taken on a special aspect involving local populations in routine maintenance.
Moreover the difficulties faced by the State in financing road maintenance led the government to devise a system of collection at source know as the “Road Fund”.
And to increase our operational efficiency, we decided to privatise road maintenance gradually. So we encouraged local contractors to carry out this road maintenance by awarding contracts through an open and transparent system called “For tender” |
Q. 4: As we have seen it you have some very strong relationships with private partners, could you give us an overview of your main partners and the opportunities that you are trying to focus on?
A. 4: As I said, we are going even a step further now to encourage not only the local contractors but even foreign funds to take part in our maintenance effort. By awarding medium term contracts, a contractor has to know that he can work on a road network during five to ten years, and it is more encouraging. Recently, we published in a magazine our program for the next three years with all about the tenders, interest, foreign fund and so one to evaluate what we need to do and what we want to obtain from our partnerships. As I mentioned, our goal is to invite any partners from the private sector in roads construction. I think this is the best way to accelerate our development.
Q. 5: There is one very good example: the pipeline project which includes itself a development process for many regions in the country, could you give us other examples of some projects that you are already planning to realize during the next years.
A. 5: Yes, I just mentioned the bypass of Douala, which we are programming. When we will be eligible for debt relief from the IMF and the World Bank, I think sometime before the end of this month, we will be able to launch other road construction projects. As you know, our country needs a lot of roads, we do not have enough structures, this is why we are looking forward to that, and it is sure that our better economic standing will encourage people to invest.
Q. 6: Could you give us your personal background, as our readers are always very interested in.
A. 6: I do not remember! I am nearly sixty years old. I was born in the south west of Cameroon and went school there; I graduated from Queen’s University in Canada in applied sciences. And later, I did a postgraduate Diploma in Highways and Traffic Engineering at the University of Newcastle. Then I am a civil engineer since 1965. I worked in this Ministry until 1995 when I went on retirement at the age of 55. But I did not rest; I was invited to join the Cameroon Development Cooperation, which is our biggest agro-industrial operation company in Cameroon. I was technical Director of that cooperation, responsible for roads maintenance, construction, water supplies, hydraulics in general, irrigation, buildings, maintenance of factories because they have a good number of rubber: palm oil, and banana factories. I spent nearly two years there and I was called back as the Minister of Public Works.
Q. 7: You are in this field for a long time now and you know perfectly your sector; our readers are all businessmen, potential investors, so what would be your final message?
A. 7: First of all, I would like to tell them that we have carried out a reform in this sector in terms of transparency, efficiency, methods etc. Our activity became very attractive for the private sector. We have a lot of work that they can do for us and with us to contribute to our development. So I would encourage them to come, the sector is wide open, there is a lot of business, especially now that the funds are guaranteed to a road funds. We have put down good foundations for partnerships with the private sector.
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