Blue Star Media · Daily Brief · 13 October 2026

Cameroon has called for bids to rebuild 167km of the Douala-Yaoundé road. The 58km nearest the port, which carry the most lorries, are waiting on financing that has yet to be confirmed.

National road 3 at Edéa, July 2020. Photo: Simbanematick, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (file page)

On 8 October the public works ministry called for international bids to rebuild 167km of national road 3 (RN3) between Yaoundé and Edéa. This is the road lorries use to carry goods from the port of Douala to the interior and on to the Central African Republic. Bids are due on 24 November. The work is split into three lots of 52.05km, 52.05km and 62.9km, to be built at the same time over 30 months each, and about 45km will get four-lane sections, including overtaking lanes, according to Investir au Cameroun (source 1). The financing comes from the World Bank. Its board approved a US$1.12bn programme for the Douala-Bangui corridor on 12 June, and Cameroon receives US$425m of the first phase (source 2).

The tender stops at Edéa. The 58km from there to Douala are the busiest part of the corridor, with about 4,583 lorries, 5,012 cars and 1,592 buses and minibuses a day, according to the World Bank's project document (source 3). That section, together with a second bridge over the Dibamba (sources 1, 5), is being prepared separately with the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Investment Bank and the European Union. The bank says the partners' envelope is yet to be confirmed and the technical solution is still under discussion; the partners plan to seek board approval in the fourth quarter of 2026 (source 3). The ministry measures the section at 51km, to the Dibamba bridge (source 5).

Lorries heading inland from the port, or from the flour mills clustered around Douala at Bonabéri and Bassa (source 6), use this stretch before they reach the one now out to tender. Further inland the traffic thins, though lorries make up a larger share of it (see chart). As an alternative, the Douala-Yaoundé-Bélabo-Ngaoundéré railway, which the bank describes as key for fuel, timber and other freight, is being rehabilitated under a separate project (source 3).

The World Bank puts trucking costs on the corridor at US$0.35 to 0.40 per tonne-kilometre, more than twice the southern African average (source 4). Over the full 1,400km to Bangui, costs can reach US$270 a tonne and the road journey typically takes 9 to 12 days (source 3). On the Cameroonian section, lorries pass 38 checkpoints. Seventeen are associated with informal payments. The bank lists road quality, border procedures, security, the structure of the trucking market, queuing and allocation at the port of Douala and informal payments as explaining a large share of costs, and argues that new roads lower prices only when reforms come with them (source 3).

Average daily lorry traffic by section; lorries' share of all vehicles in brackets

Source: World Bank, Douala-Bangui Economic Corridor Project, project information document, appraisal stage (May 2026). Shares computed from the same counts (lorries, cars, buses and minibuses). The bank's sections do not match the tender's lots exactly.

The wider programme addresses some of these. Lot 1 includes a digitised weigh station (source 1), and the ministry's July procurement notice lists two, to enforce axle-load limits, along with driver-assistance systems for 3,000 heavy lorries and the design of a logistics platform at Edéa, possibly as a public-private partnership (source 5). The bank also funds studies for an industrial zone at Edéa, which it lists with Douala and Kribi as a growth pole (sources 3, 4).

A presidential decree of 2 October authorised a loan agreement for €347.5m, about CFA228bn, with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (source 1). Cameroon's full first-phase allocation, €362.9m or about CFA238bn, also pays for supervision, studies, maintenance planning and the Edéa platform design, according to the ministry's July notice as reported by Investir au Cameroun (source 5). No cost per lot has been published (source 1).

Maintenance has long been underfunded. The Road Fund's annual resources cover less than a tenth of estimated needs, which the World Bank puts at CFA180bn (source 3). The project brings in ten-year performance-based maintenance contracts, co-financed by the Road Fund on a rising scale until it bears the full cost after five years (source 3). The 2027 budget circular, signed on 12 October, asks ministries to inventory their infrastructure and set aside enough for its upkeep before making new commitments, Investir au Cameroun reports (source 7).

No start date has been announced. Bid evaluation, approvals, award and mobilisation follow the 24 November deadline. If works begin in the second half of 2027, Investir au Cameroun calculates, the 30-month lots would be finished in 2030 (source 1). The expressway will not come sooner. Only 60km of the planned 200km Douala-Yaoundé route have been built. Its 141.1km second phase is with China First Highway Engineering Company (source 1), and the World Bank does not expect completion before 2035 (source 3).

For an importer or miller in Douala, the next markers are the bid opening on 24 November and whether AFD, the EIB and the EU take the Douala-Edéa section to their boards. Until then, the busiest 58 kilometres have no confirmed financing, let alone a tender.

Yaoundé lowers its 2026 growth forecast to 3.5%. The budget circular for 2027, signed on 12 October, expects growth of 3.5% this year, against 4.3% in the initial budget law, and raises the deficit forecast from 1.7% to 2.2% of GDP, Investir au Cameroun reports (source 7). It puts inflation at 4.0%, linked to the Middle East conflict, according to L'Economie (source 8). At least 30% of the 2027 budget is to go to investment, with ongoing projects and unpaid bills first (source 7).

KCT begins a CFA21.5bn yard extension at Kribi. The container terminal operator started work in early September on eight more hectares, built by CHEC, to raise capacity by 30% and static storage from 24,000 to 34,000 TEU, Business in Cameroon reports (source 9). Delivery is due in the fourth quarter of 2027. The cost is above the CFA16.4bn to 19.7bn that KCT executives presented in May; Business in Cameroon says the reason for the gap is unclear.

BGFI Holding's share offer closes on 15 October. The parent of BGFIBank is selling 1,006,975 new shares at CFA80,000 each, up to CFA80.6bn, to lift its free float from 3.85% to 10%. The minimum subscription is ten shares. A first phase raised CFA45.3bn from 7,601 investors, the group says (source 10).

Five old coin series lose legal tender on 1 November. The ministerial committee of the Central African Monetary Union (UMAC) decided on 7 October in N'Djamena to demonetise the 1958, 1959, 1971, 1976 and 1985 series in all six member states, Investir au Cameroun reports (source 11). The BEAC governor announced a one-year exchange period; counters and practical terms are still to be published. The 2006 series is not affected.

World Bank lines up crisis money. The bank is in talks with 30 to 40 countries about aid for energy and price shocks from the Middle East war, its president, Ajay Banga, told Reuters on 11 October, citing a sharp rise in diesel and fertiliser prices. A first US$50bn to US$60bn is available, including about US$35bn that countries can redirect from approved projects (source 12). Finance minister Louis Paul Motaze leads Cameroon's delegation to the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, which run until 18 October (source 13).

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