CAMEROON-TRANSPORT: Building Roads To Boost The Economy

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, Sep 4 1996 (IPS) - Seventy-year-old Pierre Engoulou of Oveng, a village deep in the South Province, could not contain his joy as he extended his feeble hand to greet the European Union(EU) representative to Cameroon.

Engoulou was happy that a bridge linking his village to a neighbouring one had opened.

“…For about 20 years we found it difficult to cross over to Yemvack to greet our brothers on the other side of the river. We could not even take our produce to market. Now we will be able to do so. This is like a dream come true. I cannot believe my eyes…,” he said.

The EU representative Friedrich Nagel and Cameroon’s minister of public works, Jean Baptiste Bokam, were recently in Oveng to inaugurate the 19-kms Oveng-Oyemvack-Nden-Nkoumadjap road.

Over the next two years, the government plans to restore some 2000 kilometres of rural farm-to-market roads in seven provinces.

The two-year project is part of a new policy reform project, the Transport Sectorial Programme, which was designed three years ago by the ministry of public works to improve road maintenance policies in line with government’s push for better economic management.

Roads in the cocoa and coffee producing areas in the Centre, South, Littoral, South West, West, North West and East Provinces will be the first ones rehabilitated during the programme, which is funded by the EU.

Eventually, the road maintenance project will be extended to cover all areas in the country, “so no region should feel left out,” said Shey Jones Yembe, the secretary of state (permanent secretary) for public works.

The 10 billion CFA from the EU for the programme was drawn from another fund, STABEX, which was to support farmers who grew cocoa and coffee for exports.

( One U.S. Dollar is about 465 CFA)

But production and exports of both crops have declined. The poor state of rural roads is one of the reasons for this. Cocoa and coffee yields also have suffered because of trends in producer prices, and replanting programmes have failed to keep pace with ageing plantations.

“Cocoa and coffee are the strong arm of the economy of Cameroon. We have observed that cocoa and coffee farmers in rural areas face enormous difficulties in transporting their produce to markets,” said Nagel. “So this assistance to road maintenance is to help performance in the sector by improving collection and commercialisation.”

Road transport plays an important role in Cameroon’s economy. The country’s road network totals at least 50,000 kilometres of which only 3,500 are tarred. The roads handle 86 percent of the country’s freight and 90 percent passengers.

The poor state of the road network encouraged the development of internal air travel and of small domestic airports. The transport sector, according to official estimates, contributes 21 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Cameroon’s roads also serve as as a transit corridor for neighbouring landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

On a recent visit to negotiate the re-opening of the main road on which goods are moved from Cameroon’s Port of Douala to the CAR capital of Bangui, the CAR’s transport minister said: “When Cameroon sneezes, the Central African Republic catches a cough. For us, the good state of Cameroon’s roads is a question of survival. For six months (the period the road was closed) we were almost asphyxiated.”

But inspite of this importance, Cameroon’s roads have deteriorated to what minister Bokam described as “a disastrous state”. They are poorly managed and poorly maintained.

During the EU-funded road programme, some 120 bridges (4-12 metres long) will be built, difficult portions along major roads will be fixed and embankments will be built on steep slopes.

A new feature in the road project is the reliance on private sector contractors and small and medium-sized enterprises for road maintenance.

This approach has been highly recommended by donors and is endorsed by the government. Some 27 local enterprises are expected to be subcontracted, which will create jobs for thousands of Cameroonians.

In the past, according to Yembe, infrastructure development demanded expensive capital investments from the public sector and relied too much on foreign expertise.

This approach, coupled with administrative bottlenecks, did not yield any results. Between 1986 and 1991, for example, the state reportedly lost some 100 billion CFA in 10 public enterprises in the transport sector.

Statistics from the ministry of public works estimate that the country needs some 35 billion CFA annually for road maintenance, but only 15 billion CFA was being budgeted.

The economic crisis that has hit the country “demands that we rationalise the use of scarce resources at our disposal, investing in priority areas that should ensure quick returns,” Yembe said.

Cameroon’s economy contracted sharply with the rate of decline in real GDP reaching 10.4 percent in the year ending June 30, 1988, but easing to about 2 percent per year in 1988/89 and 1989/90.

Political instability, widespread corruption within the civil service and increasing external debt also contributed to the economy’s decline.

Besides local contractors, the road programme has the unique aspect of involving local councils, village communities and local transporters. The public works ministry is organising a series of seminars on road maintenance across the country.

According to Yembe, if properly maintained and managed, the road sector could earn an annual income of some 65 billion CFA and thus be a major boost to the economy.

“Good road management,” Yembe added, “means that the various taxes imposed on the sector are collected and effectively used to maintain the roads, while regulations related to freight weight and other areas, are respected”.