Oxygen Balloon

Barometre 

Phase one of the Kribi Deep Seaport is completed and merely waiting to go operational. As proudly declared by Philemon Mendo, the Deputy Director General of the Container Terminal, the key of the terminal is already in their hands. In effect, the completion of the first phase was announced three years ago.

And as justified by the ports officials, the port could not go operational without putting its equipment in functional state. After fulfilling all the necessary preconditions for effective takeoff, here comes the time for real business to begin. The signal was given recently with the signing of the operational agreement on the Container Terminal between the Kribi Autonomous Port and the consortium headed by the Bollore group.

This consortium is expected as per the terms of the contract, to manage the container terminal for the next one quarter of a century. Now that the port is about to go operational, two main questions continue to linger in the minds of many a Cameroonian; one; will the Kribi Deep Sea Port contribute positively to sustainable economic development in Cameroon and two; how will the project impact Cameroon’s trade relationships with CEMAC countries and foreign partners? Providing suitable answers to these two questions entails overcoming the challenges that await the ports authorities.

We are talking here about a seaport whose natural characteristics places it over the country's historic and hitherto most important Douala port. Cameroon, it should be reiterated, already has the port of Douala, which receives heavy regional and global traffic.

However, because this is an estuary port it has to be dredged every year in order for even moderately large ships to dock. Many ships cannot enter at all, which means they have to anchor offshore while their contents are ferried to the port.

The port in Kribi will be capable of accepting the largest ships in the world. Additionally, the Kribi Deep Sea Port Complex is planned to be m...