Concretising Hope-raising Limbe Projects!

The population of Limbe and the entire South West Region have been beaming with joy lately, hoping and expecting that their lives and livelihoods will in no distant future receive a boost following government’s revived commitment to develop two giant projects in Fako Division. From the announced construction of the long-awaited Limbe Deep Seaport through the rehabilitation and modernisation of the National Oil Refinery (SONARA) after the devastating fire outbreak, expectations are indeed high as the population looks forward to accompanying government and her development partners in effectively walking the talk that rekindled the hopes. So much excitement, understandably so given the nature of the projects. In effect, the June 18, 2026 Star Building meeting between the Prime Minister and stakeholders of the envisaged Limbe Deep Seaport project was like an alarm bell. First to the population that the project was still in the pipeline and then to different government authorities to put in place the necessary preliminaries so as to effectively take it off the ground. The enlarged meeting examined aspects related to its feasibility studies, boundaries and social organs of the port project. It was one meeting with striking messages to two camps. It’s effective execution and full functioning will greatly stimulate regional trade and supplement the port of Douala, by virtue of its depth, as a major gateway for hydrocarbons and pastoral produce from Cameroon to other near and far off countries. It is therefore a huge project that has much in stock for the local population, national and even regional economies. Then came the announced rehabilitation and modernisation of SONARA, following a fire disaster that ravaged some parts of the outfit on May 31, 2019. Reflections had gone on for the past years and some related projects championed by other State corporations made many to start hoping against hope for Limbe. But government’s robust outing, through an international market sounding during which details of the project, government’s expectations and the points of view of potential investors were presented, raises hopes that SONARA could breathe again. Opting to revive the fallen fortunes of the company through a public-private partnership model, where the contracting firm designs the project, sources the funding, executes it and runs for some time before handing over, makes the operation more serious. It is said that after the two-day Yaounde international investor consultation, the project’s timeline stipulates a launch of an international call for expression of interest, finalising the financing package by later next year before the construction proper to span over three years. Fingers are therefore crossed, hoping to see the announced SONARA New Look take shape. More so as the project is said to be designed to reconstruct existing units and modernise the company’s strategic facilities so that it would henceforth refine the country’s heavy crude oil w...