The six member countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) raised, in 2020 in Paris, 3.8 billion euros. Funds intended to carry out twelve major projects for the construction of roads, dry ports or Internet interconnection by optical fiber. Objective: to accelerate sub-regional integration. Eight of these twelve projects have actually started, according to the update made recently in Brazzaville by the monitoring committee. But they don’t all move at the same pace.
From our correspondent in Brazzaville,
In place of the bus station located in front of the Plateau des 15 ans market, in the fourth arrondissement of Brazzaville, the puddles of water left by the rain of the previous day are visible everywhere. At the wheel of his car, Gilmart, a 47-year-old driver, is regarding to take the road to Dolisie in the south.
After Dolisie, he must take a 200 kilometer integration route to the town of Ngongo on the border with Gabon. Work on this section has been going on for quite some time.
« The tar stopped 40 kilometers from Dolisie. On the other side, it’s degrading: there are pools of water and quagmires. It’s not good at all. To connect 200 kilometers to Ngongo, you have to do even 15 hours of time “says Gilmart.
Uneven progress of integration projects
This road described by Gilmart, benefiting from financing from the African Development Bank (AfDB) is one of the 12 integration projects of CEMAC. Gilmart asks the authorities to speed up the work.
« That they finish the road so that we are well like when we go from Brazzaville to Dolisie. Previously, from Dolisie to Ngongo (at the Gabon border) we paid 15,000 CFA francs [environ 23 euros, NDLR]. Now it’s 25 to 30,000 CFA francs [près de 46 euros] that the passengers pay, because the road is really not good », Laments the driver.
On the other hand, the integrative project for the construction of the Inter-State school, specializing in technologies, between Congo and Cameroon, is progressing as desired, according to Professor Michel-Cyr Djiena Wembou, permanent secretary of the Economic and Financial Reform Program of CEMAC.
« The Cameroon campus is 75% built. There remains the equipment. The Ouesso campus (Congolese side), where I have been lately, we have the land and the works have started. We must complete them. We have found a partner who must deliver $2.5 million in state-of-the-art equipment. Because it’s not regarding having a school, but you also have to have the equipment to train specialists “says Mr. Djiena Wembou.
70% of projects started
In the future, many profiles will come out of this school. ” We need, not only doctors, but also real plumbers, real locksmiths and real oil experts in the field “, he says.
70% of the CEMAC integration projects presented at the Paris round table in 2020 have actually started, estimates Jean-Baptiste Ondaye, Congolese Minister of Finance.
