A foreign industrial investor, whose identity has not been made public, has proposed building a modern bitumen plant inside the Chantier Naval et Industriel du Cameroun (CNIC) in Douala. The project, valued at several billion CFA francs, promises 300 direct jobs for young people in Douala. But months after it was announced, it remains stalled: the land needed for construction is still not available.
The reason lies in how the site itself is managed. According to information obtained by Camer.be in early September, the CNIC's grounds have reportedly been gradually carved up into a multitude of informal sublets, awarded without any public tender. This fragmented occupation now deprives the state-owned company of the continuous space that an industrial unit of this size requires.
The CNIC's acting general manager, Webnjoh Abel Bobuin Bisiya, must now deal with this inherited situation. Sources close to the management describe a rent-seeking arrangement that took hold over the years, to the detriment of the site's industrial purpose.
This is not the CNIC's first structural difficulty. Originally designed as a ship-repair facility and a hub for heavy industry, the site has seen its installations deteriorate over the years, with some areas gradually turning into illegal dumping grounds for lack of maintenance. Management had already floated a recovery plan to try to restore its operational capacity.
Given this situation, the demands now being made are specific: a comprehensive land audit of the site, the effective release of the plots needed for the industrial project, and a clean-up plan paired with a relaunch of activity. According to the same sources, these measures will determine whether the interested industrial group maintains its commitment to the site.
Neither the CNIC's general management nor its supervisory authorities have released a precise timetable for this land audit, nor a start date for construction of the bitumen plant. The 300 announced jobs remain, for now, contingent on resolving this internal land dispute.
