Traditional rulers from Fako Division of the South West region have express worries over prolong delay in the commencement of the Limbe Deep Seaport Project. The chiefs voice their worries to Prime Minister Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute for onward transmission to the President of the Republic, Paul Biya. This was during an audience granted the 12-man delegation by the Head of Government at the Star Building.
“Since the creation of this deep seaport there is need for it to go operational. We think that it will help us to go a long way to reduce the strength and forces of the crisis and to rebuild the confidence of the people…we are happy but waiting in anticipation of this event,” said Dr. Ekoka Molindo, Spokesperson of the Fako chiefs shortly after the audience with the PM.
They chiefs used the audience to also express gratitude to the President for creating the port and to express their firm stand and believe in his vision to see the port go operational in no distant time.
“We came here to thank the Head of State for the creation of the Limbe Deep Seaport and we brought other messages to put across to the Prime Minster to the Head of State,” revealed Chief Kombe Richard Ndike, President of Fako Chiefs who doubles as South West Regional House of Chiefs.
They said the port will serve as a game changer in the economy of the Division and open the flood gates of opportunities for the region and the country at large once it goes operational.
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 has unfortunately 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 Paul Biya, signed two separate decrees, reorganising and approving the status of the port. This 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. 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 based on the huge economic and social potentials it will bring to the entire nation.
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.
Feasibility studies for the construction of Limbé deep seaport were updated since Oct 2019. This first study carried out some 10 years back 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.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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