Minister of Economy Alamine Ousmane Mey has been authorized to sign a loan agreement for the construction of the Ebolowa-Akom II-Kribi road connecting Cameroon and Congo. The loan agreement will be signed with the Standard Chartered Bank London.
According to Investir au Cameroun, despite ignoring for the time being the terms and conditions of this loan, this decree means that the parties have done all due diligence prior to the signature of the financing arrangement. After signature, the funds will be made available to the builder depending on the progress of the work on the road which opens the Congo to the port of Kribi.
After Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, the minister of public works, and Roberto Costantini, Africa director of the Italian company ICM Construction, who is in charge of building the 179.2 km road, mutually agreed to a contract on March 23, 2022, President Paul Biya gave his approval.
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Duration and cost of the Ebolowa-Akom II-Ebolowa road construction project
The contract stipulates that the Ebolowa-Akom II-Kribi road would be built over the course of 36 months. The project will amount to 122.4 billion FCFA (including tax). The Italian constructor was required by the Standard Chartered Bank to abide by environmental regulations before agreeing to the financing terms required to begin the project. The operation took longer than expected. Deviating from the ICM schedule that predicted construction would start in the second half of 2022.
The country’s head of state assured the citizens of the southern region. That the Ebolowa-Akom II-Kribi road would be constructed during the 2011 Ebolowa agropastoral forum. Following Paul Biya’s state visit to Italy from March 20–22, 2017, the project was awarded to ICM.
The eagerly awaited Ebolowa-Akom II-Ebolowa road will complete the Kribi-Congo Border route. The 74-kilometer Sangmelima-Mengong road is already under development thanks to Cameroon’s funding for that corridor. The route connecting Ebolowa to Sangmelima will make it easier to carry forestry resources from Congo to port of Kribi.
