Port Authority of Douala: Management unveils innovations that place facility among world’s best.

This is barely two years after the same group of journalists made their last working visit.

The PAD management divided the interventions into three major sub heads: Work they have done to encourage the anchoring of  larger and longer vessels in the facility, through more efficient and regular dredging of the canal; work done to decongest developing more storage space for wares, both for goods imported and those to be exported.

Thirdly, the civil engineering works carried out to upgrade access roads all around the facility, and provide more space through reclaiming waste and hitherto abandoned lands.

Evolution of PAD

The new look Port Authority of Douala actually began when President Biya signed decree number 99/127 of 15^th June, 1999, creating port authorities in the country.

By that decree, the national ports management institution, ONPC, was dissolved, leading to the independence of ports which formerly were controlled by the single central authority. Thus, the Port Authority of Douala, the Port Authority of Limbe, the Port Authority of Kribi and the Port Authority of the Garoau Dry Port, were created.

As far as the sharing of assets of the former central management body was concerned, government ordered that each of these new authorities should inherit facilities, equipment and all other properties found or already built and developed within their area of control.

Consequently, the PAD inherited assets that were found in its immediate surroundings without those built far away from the port area.

Taking control of residual assets still a problem

Management disclosed that the PAD had not less than 30 properties that were located outside the immediate surroundings of the facility, and which management has not been able to take control up till now. This is even though these properties are a potential source of revenue to both the government and the PAD. 

This is even more realistic because of, not only the value of the properties, but the high value of land in the areas where they are located, because of the vast expansion that the city of Douala has been witnessing with globalisation and national economic expansion and overall growth of the town and its environs. 

Jacques Yepmou, Director of PAD Landed Properties, explained the intricacies surrounding the challenge his management confronted and continues to confront in trying to implement government order for newly created port authorities to take over all assets, landed, residual and otherwise, already developed in their area of control.

Management then called on the press to chronicle this problem into the listening ears of the powers that be, so that measures could be taken to reverse the ownership of these properties to the PAD.

But The Guardian Post learnt that when government signed the decree creating the different port authorities, these properties at the Douala port were auctioned, and some Cameroonians and even foreigners, who were on ground at the time and had the financial power, bought these properties.

PAD, however, now claims that the properties were undervalued as at that time and were actually given away for peanuts.

Container terminal

For Lin Dieudonne Onana Ndoh, Director General of the Container Terminal, known by its French abbreviation, RTC S.A., the container terminal today is drastically different from what visiting journalists saw two years ago. This is especially as far as improving access to the terminal and attending to vessels on arrival are concerned.

For one, larger vessels now berth at the terminal, because of improved access on the passage way, deeper waters, making for faster and easier evacuation of vessels. These services have been improved, Onana Ndoh said, thanks to the acquisition of more modern equipment and towing boats that shuttle to and from deeper waters to the quay to facilitate the discharge of cargo. 

For towing facilities, he also disclosed that the activity has been enhanced by the acquisition of three new towing boats. Among these, two are always on permanent duty, while one is also permanently on standby, ready to give support and reinforcement if circumstances and work environment call for such.

Onana Ndoh was corroborated by Samuel Ngondi Eboua, Director of Dredging Activities, RDD, who told journalists that in the past, this activity was done by foreign firms and technical personnel. But now, virtually all activities are handled by Cameroonians, many of who have undergone training, either on the job, by working side by side with expatriates, or from outside, by receiving training from foreign institutions and organisations where they go for further studies.

Douala Port security

For Captain Bertrand Mekinda, the Assistant Director of Security at PAD, no individual, group, association, company or any other business institution would want to do business where there is insecurity, or where there is no guarantee that investments would be safe.

This is why, he said, PAD has left no stone unturned in making port security its priority; and providing the facility with up-to-date equipment and best gadgets in the security sector.

Therefore, within a period of barely two years, PAD has been able to secure an   aerial surveillance system from which the whole port area can now be watched all round the clock from a single central position. All activities at PAD are geared towards achieving the dreams embedded in its motto: “Performance, Attractiveness and Competitivity”.

With this vision perpetually in view, PAD management never relents in striving to place the institution among the best seaports in the world to do business.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3169 of Monday July 15, 2024