The Limbe Deep Sea Port has been a major point of attention for Anglophone Cameroonians in general and those from the South West in particular. The port project which promises huge economic potentials if executed but unfortunately it has been under government promise for the past two decades. Many had long lost hopes on the said project, considering as another unrealized government project.
The lost hopes were however rekindled last May 2020, when the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, in his usual political vision of living up to fulfill his promise to his people signed two separate decrees, reorganising and approving the status of the port.
This singular action rekindled the hopes of the population, majority of whom have pointed the unrealized project as one of the key factors exemplifying supposed marginalization of the two Anglophone regions where sociopolitical crisis has been rife in for close to five years now.
The reorganized Port it should be noted was created in 1999 but left unplanted. This singular act which raised so much fresh hopes and expectations within the population of the crisis-hit regions is seemingly prolonging commencement.
Political bookmakers hold that the effective execution of the much-talked-about Limbe Deep Sea Port, which featured among some of the key recommendations of the Major National Dialogue will show some degree of good faith on the part of the regime. For, this will bring about huge economic and social potentials to not just the population but to the entire nation and across the West and Central African Sub Regions.
These observers have said and rightly so, that the construction of the port will not only be a fulfilment of the President’s promise to his people but it will serve as a major game changer in Cameroon’s road to emergence by 2035.
Cognizant of the fact that the said project is capable of calming political tempers in the two regions, many are calling on the Head of State, Paul Biya, to, in his usual excellent approach, bring to fruition this project which will catalyse development.
Feasibility studies for the construction of Limbé deep seaport are were updated, since Oct 2019. Transport Minister, Jean Ernest Ngallé Bibehe said the studies for the project carried out more than 10 years ago are being updated. This first study estimated the construction of the port at about FCFA 400 billion.
The port infrastructure will specialize in the transport of heavy products such as hydrocarbons, due to its proximity to the National Refining Company (SONARA) and agricultural products (the South-West region is home to huge banana plantations and an important cocoa producing area), he reveals. Experts project that the construction and swinging into function of the Limbe Deep Sea Port will open up opportunities for some 20,000 direct and indirect jobs.
A contract was signed in 2013 with the African Development Bank, a Korean bank and the Turkish Eximbank to bankroll the 602 million USD project whose feasibility studies were carried out in 2008. Korean experts under the Limbe Port and Industrial Development Company, LIPID, had committed to execute the project through the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed in November 2013. According to experts, the project will create about 20,000 indirect and direct jobs. It will attract tourists and stir development by providing social amenities in the area.
In 2015, Economy, Planning and Regional Development Minister, Emmanuel Nganou Ndjoumessi, announced that work on the Limbe deep seaport will begin in six months. He said the Korean partners charged with the project under the Limbe Port and Industrial Development Company, LIPID, have taken the commitment to begin work in the next six months to make the ports operational by 2016.
“It is good news for Cameroon to get the Limbe Deep Seaport operational soonest. Our Korean partners have assured us that this is possible and that in the next six months effective work on the ports will commence. The South West region is the agriculture bread basket in the country and with a commercial port near this agriculture and oil production zone, we think this will be a big boost to our economy,” Minister Nganou Ndjoumessi said, expressing government’s readiness to accompany the Korean company in the big economic venture.
This is however not a fruition till date. Many observers hold that the construction of the Limbe Deep Seaport has been long overdue. For decades, its construction was simply ignored or politicized, contrary to that of Kribi whose construction was practically stampeded.
A decision signed at the end of the 48th Board Meeting of the National Ports Authority, NPA resolved to return the initial option of constructing the Limbe Deep Seaport in Ngeme and not in Isonge as it was announced in 2013. NPA Board Members after examining several suggestions decided to go back to their initial decision of building the port in Ngeme, a seashore locality in the Limbe II Sub-division.
Cameroon, according to statistics, has a 400-km long coastline with only one operational commercial seaport that carries out 99.85 per cent of maritime traffic. They were 11,302.4 tons in 2015 as against 10,852,563 tons in 2014, representing an increase of 449,538 tons - 4.14 per cent annual increase. Since 1990, maritime activities along the coast of Cameroon have continued to increase by 4 per cent annually and will even increase further in the years ahead. The Douala main port is therefore saturated and will not likely support the increasing trend of commercial and business activities announced in Cameroon in the years ahead.
Limbe is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and being that it has a depth of 18 which is far higher than that of Douala (7) and this means that by this position, Limbe can now serve as a front Port to Douala, meaning big ships will anchor in Limbe and smaller ships will carry the cargo to Douala, which will give way for more ships coming in with less expenditure to ensure the transaction because they will not be any delay. This will make the Limbe Port more attractive. Also, Limbe is situated 17KM from Douala, and close to Mutengene, Buea, Kumba, Mamfe etc, where movement is very easy even right up to Nigeria.
Limbe has a very rich hinterland with Nigeria just close by, with its about 200 million inhabitants. If a Port is created in Limbe, it holds the present and future market.
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