A Prime Ministerial release of August 26, 2015, selected the two groups for the different functions.

The container terminal of the Kribi Deep Seaport in the South Region of Cameroon will henceforth be managed by the Bolloré/CMA-CGM/CHEC consortium. The task was handed out to the Group on August 26, 2015 by a release of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang.

The consortium according to the release has been declared successful for the partnership contract for operations and the development of the 350 metre long container terminal with a capacity of 350,000 EVP container terminal of the Kribi Seaport. The Prime Minister in a separate release same day awards the operation and maintenance of the 265 metre long multipurpose terminal with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of the seaport to the Necotrans/KPMO consortium.

Group Profiles

The Bolloré Group is a household name in Cameroon with business activities in the maritime and railway sectors. The Group is reported to be among the world’s 500 largest companies. Thanks to its diversified strategy based on innovation and international development, the Group now holds positions in each of its three businesses amongst which are transport and logistics.

The Marseille-based CMA CGM is reported to be prominent in maritime transport across 160 countries. Reports say it has a diverse fleet of 445 ships and serves 450 ports besides its presence in 170 marine services. The China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC) on its part is a world-renown international contractor with 50 overseas branches and offices with business activities covering more than 80 countries and areas.

For operations and maintenance of the multipurpose terminal, Necotrans will have to prove its worth. The Group with well over 30 years of international field experience in maritime logistics will have to put the seaport at its fingertips with its reported singularity of sharp services offers, customized and integrated. The commitment to carry out expansion work does not fully rely on the Necontrans-Kribi Multi Port Operators (KPMO), a group of forwarders whose only responsibility lies on the exploitation and maintenance of the multipurpose terminal.

What Next?

The detailed financial commitments of the consortia are yet to be made public. The Steering and Monitoring Committee in charge of the Implementation of the Kribi Port Industrial Complex is expected in the next 10 days preceding the release of the Prime Minister, to serve Bolloré/CMA-CGM/CHEC and the Necotrans/KPMO consortia notification letters. The letters are expected to bear the practical modalities negotiating the terms of the partnership agreement with government.

Another step will be creating a ports authority in Kribi and appointing the management staff through whom the existing operational unit of the steering committee will hand over the port and all related infrastructure as well as transfer existing technology notably on the management of the state-of-the-art deep seaport. All the equipment that can allow ships to anchor in the two terminals are already available in the port, some 35 km from Kribi town.