Recently, Cameroon’s Minister of Public Works Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi inaugurated a total of 321.5km of newly constructed and previously missing sections of the Sangmelina-Ouesso Road Corridor that links Cameroon and the neighboring republic of Congo.
Also Read: Sangmélima-Ouesso Road: Cameroon to complete construction of its side of the road this year
Constructed under the Central African Consensual Transport Development Master Plan (PDCT-AC), the said sections are the 85km long Sangmelima-Bikoula, the 38km Bikoula-Djoum, the 98km Djoum-Mintom, the 67.50 km Mintom-Lélé, and the 53km Lélé-Ntam-Mbalam sections.
Impact of the newly constructed sections of sangmelina-ouesso road corridor
Owing to these newly constructed sections of sangmelina-ouesso road corridor, travelers coming from Yaoundé to Ntam, the Eastern border town with Congo, can now make the whole journey within seven hours.
This according to Minister Djoumessi, is a significant reduction in traveling time considering that previously travelers would spend at least four days on the same route reason been the road was in a terrible condition especially after Sangmelina, starting from Djoum.
Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Joseph Nguessan, the African Development Bank (AfDB) representative for the Central African region, explained that he worked as an expert on the project.
“At one time, I hit the road to get a feel of the real conditions. This road you are seeing now was just a track, but I’m proud to see that now two Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) capitals are connected by a real road. It is the AfDB’s ambition to see similar initiatives implemented in more countries in the Central African region,” said Mr. Nguessan.
AfDB is the main donor of the Sangmelina-Ouesso Road Corridor project, the cost of which was close to US$ 354bn. Other contributors were the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Islamic Development Bank, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund, and the two beneficiary countries (Congo and Cameroon).
