In the context of the sub-region, this could sound like “I’ve-heard-this-before kind of rhetoric; especially as other countries within the CEMAC (Economic Community of Central Africa) zone have, sometimes, held Cameroon responsible for holding down the integration drive. A close look at the situation conjures a different story altogether, with Cameroon’s ambitions of opening up roads towards its neighbours as a veritable beacon in its resolve to see all the six member countries and, even Nigeria which is in an entirely different economic zone linked by an efficient road network. “It is clear that inter-State communication within the CEMAC region leaves much to be desired,” the president told the diplomats last Wednesday, but acknowledged that “the construction of modern road links between our countries could boost trade and development.”
A recent study by a Congolese expert Etienne Koulakoumouna from the Centre d’Etudes et de recherches en Analyse et Politiques Economiques in Brazaville agrees that « CEMAC can reap profit from the regionalisation in comparison to its socio-economic advantages « … and that « the states must develop the basic infrastructure which can accelerate the process, among which is road transport because it constitutes the main means of communication in the sub-region and is accessible to all social population categories”.
President Biya’s pronouncements of the other day were not simple rhetoric. In the past few years, Cameroon has promoted a policy of opening up roads to virtually all of its immediate neighbours. The Ngaoundere-Moundou (Chad) road is fully operational and has helped in no small way in improving the movement of goods from Douala to Chad’s economic capital. The traditional route towards N’Djamena may be in an advanced state of disrepair because of the intense traffic, but concern has lately been raised as to the urgency of having the Maroua-Kousseri-N’Djamena stretch of some 300-odd kilometres repaired. The Bertoua-Garoua-Boulaï highway of over 250 kilometres is operational and is only waiting for the cue from the Central African Republic to take the road from Garoua-Boulaï, a border town, toward Bangui.
Cameroon’s southern neighbours of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are also accessible by a tarred road from Yaounde through Ebolowa and then to Ambam from where the road continues to Gabon through Abang-Minko or to Equatorial Guinea, towards Kye-Ossi.
From a road transport point of view, Cameroon is now virtually linked to all the other five CEMAC member countries with the only exception being the Republic of Congo. But even then, the Sangmelima-Djoum-Congo frontier road project is on with the aim of linking Cameroon to the Congolese city of Oueso in the very near future. With this network, one can imagine that vegetables or potatoes loaded in the Foumbot market in Cameroon’s West Region on a Friday morning can be in Libreville’s food markets by Saturday morning. These roads have also greatly eased the movement of people, especially within countries with relaxed visa requirements such as Central African Republic, Chad and Congo.
But Cameroon’s posture as an integration facilitator is not limited to the CEMAC zone. By opening up new communication routes towards Nigeria, it is helping to link the two important economic and monetary communities of West and Central Africa (ECOWAS and CEMAC respectively) and, thus helping, in its own manner, to foster African integration.
On June 17, 2010 the Works Ministers of Cameroon (Bernard Messengue Avom) and Nigeria (Senator Mohammed Sanusi Daggash) broke grounds at Mfum and Ekok to formally launch a whopping CFA 189 billion Bamenda-Mamfe-Ekok-Abakiliki road project. By that act, opened a new chapter of trade between Cameroon and Nigeria’s huge market potential of over 150 million consumers who are also, henceforth, open to the other countries of the CEMAC realm.
From this setting, Cameroon is a veritable facilitator for integration through road transport.
