Ngaoundere Dry Port
Located in the Beka-Matari neighbourhood near the railway, 13km from Ngaoundere Town in the Adamaoua Region, the dry port project is also a brain child of the Chadian government. It seeks to decongest the Douala and Kribi ports and to reduce pre- and post-shipment delays and will go a long way to boost economic activities in the northern part of Cameroon through the many investment opportunities that it will offer to business persons. "This is good news for some of us who move goods from and to Cameroon," Mahmat Abel Kader, Chadian transporter said.
Following the June 2015 instructions of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, a steering committee for the project to dematerialise foreign trade procedures was set up and tasked with negotiating with the local authorities to allocate to the Customs an appropriate investments site in Ngaoundere.
After fruitful negotiations, a 200-hectare piece of land was effectively allocated to the Adamaoua customs authorities for the project to create a dry port in Ngaoundere, which is perfectly in line with Cameroon's economic policy to contribute to the development of intra-African trade by boosting trade on the continent.
During the launch of the International Customs Day activities in Ngaoundere on 21 January 2019, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, promised to relaunch the Ngaoundere dry port project, stressing that "it is an old project that is dragging on and everyone knows its benefits to the local economy and the added value it will bring throughout the supply chain. The Government will ensure the success of the project. After the acquisition of the piece of land, the customs authorities are working to accelerate other administrative procedures that will culminate in the operationalisation of the project to mark the economic take-off of the northern part of Cameroon and neighbouring countries.
(Source: Cameroon Business Today No.119 of 21 - 27 August 2019)