Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Works (MINTP) has invited bids by 30 January for reconstruction works on the 242km Ngaoundere-Garoua road, located in the Adamoua and North regions.

The route is part of the 2,100km Douala-N’Djamena corridor linking Cameroon’s western port city of Douala to N’Djamena, the capital of neighbouring Chad. The work is being undertaken under phase 4 of Cameroon’s Transport Sector Support Programme (PAST).

The Ngaoundere-Garoua section, which was built in the 1990s and is a breakpoint on the corridor, is at the end of its lifespan and in a dilapidated state, causing excessive journey times and transaction costs.

The work is divided into five lots, namely the 50km Ngaoundere-Malang crossroads-Bottom of the Mbe Cliff section with a duration of 36 months; the 39km Mbe Cliff-Keroua bridge route over 24 months; the 77km Keroua bridge-Salah bridge road over 36 months; a 56km route linking Salah bridge to the entrance of the Ouro Andre village over 24 months; and a 56km road running from the entrance of the Ouro Andre village to the Benoue bridge over 24 months.

The tender was issued on 11 December 2024 and can be viewed here.

Related works will include the development of 15km of urban roads in the towns of Ngaoundere, Mbe, Gamba, Gouna and Ngong; the rehabilitation of 139km of roads to open up the agro-pastoral basin in the North Region; and the revamping of 163km of access roads to cotton-growing basins in the Adamaoua region.

The specific objectives of the Ngaoundere-Garoua road project include the opening up of the Adamaoua plateau production basins; reduction in journey time and transport cost on the Douala-N’Djamena corridor as well as the Douala-Bangui corridor that links to the capital city of the Central African Republic (CAR); and promotion of the use of other modes of transport, particularly rail and river transport.

The Ngaoundere-Garoua road scheme has a total cost of €340.7 million (US$351.2 million) and is aimed to be completed by December 2030. It is being supported by the African Union and the Cameroonian government, as well as the African Development Bank (AfDB), which approved loans worth a combined €330 million for the scheme in December 2024.

The Douala-N’Djamena corridor is seen as the most important in Cameroon. According to the World Bank, the corridor accounts for 35% of Cameroon's GDP and serves 35% and 20% of the populations of Cameroon and Chad respectively.

“The renovation of the most deteriorated section [of the corridor], between Ngaoundere and Garoua, will help improve the performance of the Cameroonian road network in order to promote participation and private investment in the agro-industrial, transport and logistics sectors along the Douala-N’Djamena corridor and, at the same time, will facilitate cross-border trade,” said Serge N’Guessan, AfDB director-general for Central Africa.

Previous PAST phases are ongoing or on the verge of being completed.

PAST 1 is aimed at providing an alternative access route to the Douala-N’Djamena corridor via the central plain of Cameroon and the Centre and Adamaoua regions.

The work involves the development of the 248.6km Batschenga-Ntui-Yoko-Lena road and is part of the government’s efforts to channel produce from the Mbam-Sanaga agricultural basin to the main consumption centres of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) region through the Yaounde-Ndjamena-Bangui, Yaounde-Gabon-Equatorial Guinea and Yaounde-Republic of Congo corridors.

Completion on the US$514.9 million project is targeted by December 2025.

PAST 2 covers the rehabilitation of the Yaounde-Bafoussam-Babadjou route, which connects the southern and northern regions of Cameroon via the west, while connecting the Bamenda-Enugu (Nigeria) corridor to the Douala-N’Djamena corridor from Ngaoundere.

The US$505.9 million scheme was expected to have been concluded by December 2024.

PAST 3 targets the construction of a 365km ring road that forms a loop crossing five departments of the North West Region and includes several connections to the Nigerian border.

The US$247.8 million project is planned to be completed by December 2026. 

Top photo: Cameroon road (Source: Facebook @ MINTP)