The African Development Bank, AFDB, has expressed regret at the fact that the transport sector in Cameroon mainly focuses on the road sector, meanwhile the railway, meteorology, maritime and civil aviation subsectors are degrading due to negligence.
The AFDB officials while on a mission for a general identification of operations in the transport sector in Cameroon, have however expressed some degree of satisfaction. Mike Salawou, Director of the Infrastructure and Urban Development department at the African Development Bank was speaking on December 12 during an audience he was granted by transport minister, Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe.
Mike Salawou who is leading the African Development Bank Delegation revealed during the audience that the transport sector makes up for about 53% of projects in Cameroon being funded by the African Development Bank. He however decried the fact that all efforts have all this while been concentrated mainly on the road sector. He also disclosed that their mission was to get a list of projects in the transport sector so as to help rectify such errors in future.
Taking turns to present the situation in their subsectors, heads of technical services at the ministry made detailed evaluations of their respective domains.
In the railway subsector, a new railway line between Edea and Kribi and the cross-border railway that will link Cameroon to Chad and whose feasibility studies are funded by the African Development Bank are projects in the pipeline. For now however, emphasis was laid on the protection and delimitation of railway paths.
In the meteorology subsector, the Director revealed that through the National Polytechnique Institutes of Yaoundé and Maroua, some 350 youth have been trained in the field of meteorology and have been dispatched to all ten regions. For the subsector to produce exhaustive, quality and reliable data, there is nonetheless a need for funds for the construction of meteorological infrastructure.
The civil aviation sector heads expressed the need to rehabilitate the Yaounde and Garoua airports and also revealed that those of Kribi, Bertoua and Tiko are under construction.
The Director of Maritime Affairs and Inland Waterways decried the level of negligence of waterways in the country. He also revealed that there are plans to create a center for certification of inland waterways professions.
At the end of the audience, the African Development Bank Delegation expressed satisfaction with discussions held and promised to follow up all what has been presented to them.
