Lukong Pius Nyuylime
2 March 2009
This is one of the key issues discussed Last Friday in Kribi by the Steering Committee. The Kribi Deep Seaport multibillion project is readjusting in order to adapt to new circumstances. This was one of the major issues discussed last Friday in Kribi by members of the project steering committee.
Meeting in its fourth session under the chairmanship of its president, Louis Paul Motaze, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, the committee members examined and adopted the general plan for the installation of the port infrastructure.
The main issue at hand was to continue with the plan to adapt the general plan to new dispensation. This, in effect, has to do with shifting the installations downward to localities in the southern part of Kribi where the marine, topographical and environmental conditions are best to host vessels. By this token, the Kribi Deep Seaport, henceforth referred to as the Kribi Ports Complex, will harbour four different terminals each with its specificities in terms of services and activities.
According to the Director of the Project , Louis Nlend Banack, the Kribi Ports Complex will entertain four main activities: artisan fishing and leisure activities to be concentrated at the Kribi terminal, tourism, industrial fishing and other similar activities at the Grand Batanga terminal, industrial, commercial and naval activities at Mboro and iron ore and mineral transportation at Lolabe terminal.
The decision to specialise the terminals has in effect been on the discussion table since May last year during the round table conference organised in Yaounde which equally provided occasion for investors to declare their intensions towards the project.
The readaptation exercise, as explained by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, stems from the changes that have taken place since the early feasibility studies were made. "Traffic projections have changed, many other factors have changed and the advisory engineer has proposed that we readapt the building plan", Minister Motaze said, stating however that this will only be confirmed by the studies to be launched soon. "Investors who are ready to build the port are agreed on these changes", he said.
The advantage of the new proposal is that it is taking the port installations to virgin sites where the activities will have negligible nefarious effects on the environment. At Mboro where the general cargo port with industrial and commercial character will be posted ship carriers of 100,000 tonnes will be received. The Lolabe terminal on its part has characteristics that will provide facilities for exportation of iron from Mbalam developed by CAMIRON. It will receive very big ship carriers of 250,000 tonnes and will need high depth of water of 22 metres minimum.
The Kribi meeting took steering committee members to the four sites during which they made an appreciation of the characteristics therein. These, as explained in the final statement of the meeting, include the possible traffic to be received by each terminal, the physical characteristics of the site (topography and maritime), optimal cost of construction, economic benefits and environmental protection.
Estimated to cost over CFA 282 billion, work on the first phase of the Kribi Ports Complex may still begin as earlier programmed in December, 2009 and the first services operational by the end of 2013.
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