Extraordinary session of COMIFER

Adoption of five-year program no. 2 (2024-2029) for the rehabilitation of the railway

This is the main information to remember from the extraordinary session of COMIFER held this Thursday, March 21, 2024 at the Ministry of Transport under the presidency of Minister Jean Ernest Masséna Ngallé Bibéhè. It was a question of examining and evaluating the state of implementation of the due diligence linked to the preparation of five-year program no. 2 which includes the renewal of the Douala-Yaoundé and Belabo-Ngaoundéré lines.

Following in-depth discussions, the subjects discussed were the adoption of PQ2 (five-year program no. 2) and the project management agreement. While rejoicing at the quality of the participants' contributions with a view to improving these documents before submission and approval, "I invite the stakeholders in their drafting to get down to taking into account as soon as possible the observations shared during this working session” concluded the president of COMIFER.

Reactions

Claude Misse Ntone, director of rail transport at MINT

« I would like to say here that until now it was a program and COMIFER therefore adopted it. These are essentially the projects that we have been presenting to you for several months, it is the renewal of the Douala-Yaoundé section and between Belabo-Ngaoundéré. The work will start soon because the financing is completed with the signing on February 15 of the financing agreement with the World Bank of 232.1 million euros for the railway component between Douala-Yaoundé, and for Belabo-Ngaoundéré we had already finalized with the AFD, the European Investment Bank and the European Union for 255 million euros. We are hard at work launching calls for tenders for the recruitment of input suppliers, construction companies and project managers. There is also the continued acquisition of railway equipment, therefore 60 cars and the acquisition of locomotives according to the directions that the government will have given to improve the quality of service but also the passenger offer. This plan will have a duration of five for a total amount of approximately 400 billion FCFA ».

Serge Agnero, regional managing director of AGL

« We have just validated an important stage of the program, which is a structuring program for the railway in Cameroon. We want to thank the Cameroonian State for all the efforts undertaken so that everyone in this ecosystem can continue their progress. At the dawn of an important project, CAMRAIL will play its part, we finished late and we believe that this program will be implemented to help all stakeholders move forward. This project implemented on time so everyone can benefit from it».

Clément Noumsi