"This road is not just a road: it is a route to progress, prosperity and hope for our children."
The Mayor of Yoko Dieudonne Annir Tina praised the action of the African Development Bank's work to get the road between Batchenga, Ntui, Yoko, Lena and Tibati surfaced.
"It is an achievement the people have been waiting for since 1958", said the mayor, his face radiant with delight.
The President of the Yoko Women's Network Agnes Attah said the construction of the road between Batchenga, Ntui and Yoko has given Cameroon's agricultural, commercial and entrepreneurial activities fresh momentum:
"It has transformed our everyday lives and made it easier to get to the markets. What's more, women in Yoko have benefited from training in resource and business management, which has helped us to improve our skills and make a profit from them. We are now better equipped to make an active contribution to our region's prosperity,".
The 412 km road, which received EUR 166.51 million in funding from the African Development Bank Group, will connect Cameroon to Chad via the Lena-Tibati-Ngaoundéré section, which is currently under construction. It embodies the Bank's commitment to close regional integration, facilitating trade and opening up new economic opportunities for people in the areas it crosses.
A project at the heart of local development
The African Development Bank's Director General for Central Africa Serge N'Guessan went on a visit to inspect the road-building on the 12th and 13th November. He said:
"I can see that the direct needs of people living along the road have been taken into account. That meant refurbishing, building and equipping socio-economic infrastructure such as schools, health centres, market halls and centres for storing and processing subsistence products, among others,"
"The urban and municipal roads built at the same time have helped open up residential and agricultural production areas to make it easier to transport subsistence products to consumption centres," added Mr N'Guessan happily. "Building the road is a critical project that is going to boost the region's socio-economic development by improving regional integration and facilitating access to economic opportunities,".
The surfacing works is scheduled for completion in December 2024. It will go far beyond simply constructing road infrastructure but aims to contribute to the development of the Douala-Kribi strategic economic corridor in Cameroon to link N'Djaména to Chad.
In practice, the Batchenga-Ntui-Lena-Tibati-Ngaoundéré section is an alternative route - some 200 km shorter - linking the Cameroonian ports of Douala and Kribi to N'Djaména, the main city and political capital of Chad, thus improving regional integration in Central Africa.
N'Guessan said the road would develop high added-value agricultural areas and support the emergence of dynamic villages and the region's multisectoral development.
"By transforming rural areas into production and processing centres, we will be able to attract new investments and create local jobs, ensuring long-term prosperity for all," continued Mr N'Guessan, at a meeting with people in the village of Ntui, one of the places crossed by the road.
Olivier, a farmer in the nearby village of Niole, expressed the villagers gratitude for the new road:
"We are profoundly grateful for the road, which has changed our day-to-day lives. I am particularly pleased by the bridge over the river Nachtigal, which has been genuinely life-changing. Before, we used to cross the river by boat, with all the risks that entailed; we would often arrive in Yaoundé late at night, or even the following day. Now, thanks to the road, I can easily do the return journey to sell my plantain in a day,"
Exploiting the rich agricultural potential of Cameroon's central plain.
The Batchenga-Ntui-Yoko-Lena-Tibati Road is paving the way to a giga project in Cameroon's central agricultural plain. The project, for which funds are currently being mobilized, aims to transform Cameroon's Centre region into a vast, high added-value agricultural hub, with dedicated areas for subsistence crop production, income generation and livestock farming. Making the area more accessible should create an opportunity to exploit the plain's potential as a strategic area for agriculture and local agro-industrial value chains within a few years.
The Batchenga-Ntui-Yoko-Lena-Tibati road-building project has been completed as part of a participatory approach with other financial partners, including the French Development Agency (AFD), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC).
