Cameroon, Chad Seek Company to Study $9 Billion Railway Plan

YAOUNDE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Transport authorities in Cameroon and Chad are looking for a company to carry out feasibility studies for the construction of a rail link between the neighbouring Central African countries.

“Apart from designating the firm to conduct the studies, we’re also looking for a contractor for the project,” Cameroon’s Transport Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o said in an interview in the capital, Yaounde. The railway is estimated to cost 5 trillion CFA francs ($9.2 billion).

“These are clear signs that the execution phase of the project is fast approaching, especially considering that we have concluded a funding accord in which the African Development Bank will provide 3 billion CFA francs to cover the cost of the feasibility studies,” he said.

The envisaged 800-kilometer (497-mile) railway line will link Ngaoundere in Cameroon’s Adamawa region, to Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. Chadian trucks transit goods worth about 340 billion francs annually via a 1,850-kilometer road connecting Cameroon’s port of Douala to N’Djamena, according to Cameroon customs data.