The company Arab Contractors Cameroon, responsible for the rehabilitation works on the road sections of the Lekié Loop, has already consumed almost 50% of the deadlines and yet the general rate of progress of the works was only 13.41% to January 19, 2024, date of the last update of the project.
According to close sources, this delay is due to technical aspects. The Ministry of Public Works (Mintp), which is responsible for the project, required Arab Contractors Cameroon to respect a certain number of requirements, particularly in the management of flood-prone areas. On this date, Arab Contractors Cameroon has already completed the cleaning and clearing. The general earthworks have so far been carried out over 18 kilometers. The company has already completed the construction of 13 works out of the 112 planned… To advance the work, Arab Contractors Cameroon is expecting payment of 5.3 billion FCFA at the start of the year. The project is supposed to be delivered on December 27.
We recall that the Lekié Loop is a political promise that has been lying dormant for many years. It was in 2016 that a working group formed by the Mintp estimated the cost of this road infrastructure at 30 billion FCFA. But it was only last year that the project was shelved.
It is a length of 81.5 kilometers divided into three sections for a total cost now set at 31 million FCFA. The project foresees that this loop will facilitate the flow of products from the production areas of the Lekié division to local and sub-regional markets. The project is financed thanks to the public investment budget (BIP) of the Mintp and the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (Minepat) for the financial years 2022, 2023 and 2024
If the winning company still has 11 months to deliver the project, it still remains that at this rate (on average an increase of 1% per month), it could be held back by time when the time comes, even more so that 39% of the deadlines allocated to it have already been used. At the origin of this slowness, the project owner mentions in particular the “problems linked to the payment of the company’s accounts, the shortage of fuel and the validation of the project governance documents”. Indeed, we learn, “at the moment, it is a question of the scarcity of kerosene itself, which is an input in the production of the material widely used in road construction”.
